An 18-year-old from Diego Mar­tin be­came the coun­try’s lat­est mur­der vic­tim when he was gunned down on Mon­day night.

Po­lice said Hale Ju­nior Besson was stand­ing near a car park on the Diego Mar­tin Main Road around 9.20 pm when he was shot sev­er­al times.

By­standers saw Besson col­lapse as a white Toy­ota Field­er Wag­on, be­lieved to be the get­away ve­hi­cle, was seen leav­ing the car park and dri­ving off on­to the Diego Mar­tin High­way.

Of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, the West­ern Di­vi­sion Gang In­tel­li­gence Unit and the Four Roads Po­lice Sta­tion vis­it­ed the scene with a dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer who de­clared Besson dead.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors al­so vis­it­ed the scene and found 14 spent 5.56 shells and 70 spent 40 cal­i­bre shells.

Po­lice said a parked car and the win­dow of a near­by build­ing was al­so struck by bul­lets dur­ing the at­tack.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the house where Besson stayed on the Diego Mar­tin Main Road on Tues­day, but no one was home.

Neigh­bours said while he lived at the home, it was aban­doned as he was the on­ly one who lived there as far as they knew. One woman who asked not to be named said she knew him as a qui­et, pleas­ant young man who gen­er­al­ly kept to him­self, but was dis­turbed by the shoot­ing.

“I re­mem­bered hear­ing the gun­shots from home and was won­der­ing what was hap­pen­ing, be­cause the Four Roads (po­lice sta­tion) is right there.

“It wasn’t some­thing I ex­pect­ed so I just stayed in­side. When I heard it was the guy who died, I didn’t want to be­lieve it.”