Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Two men were shot dead and an­oth­er man in­jured in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in Siparia and Mara­bel­la on Fri­day night. They have been iden­ti­fied as Josi­ah Joseph, alias Pen­nie, 21, of Quinam Road, Pe­nal, and Cur­ban James, al­so known as Ban, 48, a welder of West Bayshore, Mara­bel­la.

In the first in­ci­dent, short­ly be­fore 9 pm, po­lice re­spond­ed to a re­port of gun­shots at Well Road, Siparia. When they got to the lo­ca­tion, how­ev­er, the of­fi­cers were met with hos­til­i­ty by sev­er­al peo­ple gath­ered on the road and in a yard.

On the front porch of an un­fin­ished struc­ture, the of­fi­cers saw Joseph bleed­ing on the floor. He had been shot ap­prox­i­mate­ly six times. While be­ing trans­port­ed in an EHS am­bu­lance to the Siparia Health Fa­cil­i­ty, he suc­cumbed to his in­juries and was pro­nounced dead by a doc­tor around 9.25 pm. Po­lice said 12 spent 9mm cas­ings were re­trieved at the scene.

In the oth­er in­ci­dent, po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that short­ly be­fore 11 pm, James was seen fight­ing with an­oth­er res­i­dent op­po­site the bas­ket­ball court in his com­mu­ni­ty. The oth­er man then ran down a track. Min­utes lat­er, James was at a near­by mi­ni-mart when three masked men emerged from a track and opened fire.

James was shot in the head, while an­oth­er man, a 44-year-old labour­er of Bayshore East, was shot in his ab­domen and is ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion at the Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Po­lice said James had been charged with mur­der in 2018 and was re­leased from prison on Sep­tem­ber 14, 2022.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found 15 spent 9mm shells, a pis­tol mag­a­zine loaded with 14 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion, and two more rounds of am­mu­ni­tion at the scene. Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.