4 murders in 6 hours

Two men, teenager and housewife brutally killed

 
Four murders in Belmont within six hours prompted homicide officers yesterday to describe the area  as “Bloody Belmont.” The victims, a 51-year- old Belmont housewife, her husband, a 52-year old taxi driver and two men, 20 and 17, were brutally murdered in two separate incidents, be-tween 3.30 am and 9.30 am yesterday. The son of the murdered housewife was also shot twice. The killings pushed the murder toll to 14 in 12 days. During the same period last year, eight persons were killed. The first murder took place around 3.30 am yesterday when Kevin Bernard, 20, was riddled with bullets while standing on Hermitage Road, Belmont.

According to reports Bernard and friend Atiba David, 17, were standing on Hermitage Road, when they were confronted by two gunmen. Bernard was shot several times and ran into the yard of retired police Cpl Robertson at Hermitage Road and collapsed. The gunmen then pursued David and shot at him. Bernard’s body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Around 4 am, Belmont police were again called, this time to Agostini Lane in Belmont, where Atiba David’s body was found with several bullet wounds. His body was also taken to the Forensic Science Centre. Police investigators described the two deaths as gang-related.

Relatives of the two victims refused to be interviewed, but police investigators claimed the two men were involved in three robberies at Bel-mont on Tuesday night. Six hours later at 9.30 am, several loud explosions were heard at Upper Oxford Street, and residents of the area claimed they saw three gunmen running away from the scene and one of them was also holding a bloodied cutlass. It was later discovered that housewife Suzanne Rajkumar, of Upper Oxford Street, Belmont, was shot and chopped in the head, neck and hands in her yard. She died instantly. Her husband Sham Ramdass, 52, a taxi driver, was shot and his left hand severed. He fled the scene and flagged down a taxi, which took him to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he died. His 17-year-old son Yohan was shot in the waist and left leg.

When officers of the Belmont Police Station arrived at the scene they found Rajkumar’s bloodied body in the yard. She was preparing a meal at the time of the attack and was dragged out of the kitchen to the yard where she was shot and chop-ped. Yohan, 17, was shot twice and pretended to be dead. Police officers believe the gunmen went to the house with the intention of killing everyone. Investigators believe that a long-standing feud may have led to the murders. Police officers learned that Yohan was accused of tipping-off the police about certain things, and he was warned that “his shot call.” Investigators told Newsday arrests are imminent. A male relative of Rajkumar collapsed at the scene of the murder and was rushed by an EHS ambulance to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where a son of the dead woman sobbed uncontrollably. Visiting the scene yesterday were Insps Jackson, Persad, Alleyne and Cpl Collins of the Anti-Crime Unit.