Gunshots ring out in L’tille, Morvant

Taken from our C R I M E section.

TWO killings in unrelated incidents on Thursday, have sent the country’s murder rate for this year to 191.

In one case, a 21-year-old man was gunned down in the yard of a house where he had gone to do some work, while in the other incident, a man was shot dead near his home.

According to police reports, at about 4 pm, Atiba Hackshaw, 21, was relaxing on the steps of a house at Thomasine Street in Laventille where he and another man only identified by police as “Sean,” were doing some work.

As the two men were relaxing on the steps of the house owned by Claudette Roberts, a gunman entered the yard and opened fire on them. Roberts who was inside the house watching television, peeped through a window, saw both men slumped on the ground and dialled Police E999 Rapid Response.

Officers from Besson Street Police Station and the Homicide Bureau arrived shortly to find Hackshaw dead and Sean bleeding from his injury.

The injured man was taken to Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated and remains warded.

Hackshaw’s body was viewed by the District Medical Officer (DMO) and ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy was scheduled for yesterday.

A traumatised Roberts told Newsday she hired the two men to remove some dirt from her yard and they were on a break from the job when they were gunned down. Roberts said she had no idea why someone would want Hackshaw dead.

The frightened woman was left with the task of cleaning up the bloodstains from her yard. Up to late yesterday no arrest was made and investigations are continuing.

And in an unrelated incident, at about 5 pm, Keston Cooper of Laventille Extension Road in Morvant was standing near his home when he was gunned down.

Police sources said Cooper was killed by members of a gang who had accused him of hiding a man who was “wanted” by the gang for killing two members. His body was also taken to the Forensic Science Centre where an autopsy was scheduled for yesterday.