Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Almost a month after his brother was shot dead, 40-year-old Akiel Packette met a similar fate after gunmen shot him at Quinam Road, Siparia, on Thursday night.
Packette, of Taylor Avenue, Quinam Road, was killed after two gunmen attacked him, firing more than 30 rounds shortly before 8.40 pm.
A 25-year-old hairdresser, who was sitting beside him with her five-year-old daughter, was wounded in the attack. The child was not injured.
Police said Packette, the apparent intended target, was sitting on a bench outside Packette’s Delight, together with the woman, when the gunmen approached and opened fire. The attackers fled in a white Nissan AD Wagon, which was later found abandoned along Coora Branch Road. Investigators determined the vehicle had been stolen and was bearing false registration plates. Packette died at the scene, while the woman sustained a gunshot wound to her right hand. She was treated at the Siparia Health Facility before being transferred to the Point Fortin Hospital.
Crime Scene Investigators recovered 37 spent shell casings at the scene, including 23 of 5.56 calibre ammunition, one 9mm casing marked “S&B 9x19,” and 13 additional 9mm Luger casings marked “CBC.”
Packette’s death comes less than a month after his younger brother, Osei Packette, was murdered during a birthday celebration on Taylor Avenue on June 19.
Osei was shot dead, while another man, Nicholas Mark, was stabbed to death. No arrests have been made in connection with either killing. Police believe the murders were drug-related. His relatives, however, said if the brothers were involved “in anything,” they were unaware.
“We don’t know why. It didn’t even make a month yet since his other brother was killed. We really don’t know what is happening. It is not easy,” said a relative.
Officers of Region Three Homicide Bureau of Investigations are continuing inquiries.
