Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

What was meant to be a night of cel­e­bra­tion quick­ly turned in­to a ter­ri­fy­ing or­deal for three young men, who were am­bushed and shot at while at­tend­ing a house par­ty in Mal­oney on Fri­day night.

The vic­tims—15-year-old King Lan­deau, 21-year-old Jordell Coop­er, and 21-year-old Kyle Der­rick—ar­rived at the Build­ing 7 car park around 8:30 pm in a pur­ple Toy­ota Aqua, dri­ven by Coop­er.

As they at­tempt­ed to con­tact a fe­male ac­quain­tance, ter­ror struck. An uniden­ti­fied male sus­pect, ap­prox­i­mate­ly five feet six inch­es tall and dressed in a black T-shirt, ap­proached them with a firearm and, with­out warn­ing, opened fire.

Lan­deau was wound­ed in the right but­tock, Coop­er suf­fered a gun­shot wound to his right foot, and Der­rick was struck in the right side of his chest.

Emer­gency re­spon­ders rushed the in­jured men to the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal, where they were treat­ed and list­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion. Coop­er and Der­rick were lat­er trans­ferred to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex for fur­ther care.

Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors re­cov­ered 13 spent 9mm shell cas­ings and one live 9mm round at the scene. The vic­tims’ ve­hi­cle was seized and tak­en to the Mal­oney Po­lice Sta­tion for pro­cess­ing as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue.