Killings continue in the west

UPDATE:

THREE people were killed in separate incidents within two hours, raising the murder toll for the year to 196. Two men were found dead in a Cocorite house on Wednesday morning, while another man was shot dead in a drive-by on Tuesday night when he stopped to urinate on his way home from a wake.

The murders of Neil James, 37, Damien Maingot, 38, and Dwayne Marchano, 36, have raised the number of people killed in the Western Division to nine over the past week. A police source told Newsday that since the deaths of Allan Lopez and Jordan Gibbs in Coco Jah, Petit Valley on Thursday last, a rash of random drive-by shootings and ambushes have been happening, leaving innocent by-standers to become collateral damage.

Relatives of James, who was killed at Frisco Junction, Carenage in Tuesday’s drive-by, lamented yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, that gunmen were playing with citizens’ lives. “These people think it is a game out here,” said one relative. “They just shooting anyone that pass.”

Newsday was told that James, a labourer at Power Boats in Chaguaramas and the father of an eight-year-old boy, had just left with a group of people from the wake of another relative when he was killed at about 11.45 pm. They said, as he was leaving he stopped at the side of the road to relieve himself when men in a car pulled up alongside the group and began shooting indiscriminately. James was killed, and two other people – 38-year-old Terry Grappie and 40-year-old Jefferson De Bique – both from Big Yard, Carenage, were wounded.

Then, at about 1 am on Wednesday, Maingot and Marchano were found dead in a two-storey apartment on Freedom Street in Cocorite. Newsday understands that police were on mobile patrol yesterday morning when they heard gunshots. They investigated and found the two men dead on a bed.

Maingot’s relatives told Newsday yesterday that he was a construction worker, and part-time plumber, who was a very active member of the St Peters Spiritual Baptist Church in St Ann’s. He was given the title of Shepard and would go every week to prepare the hall and altar for service.

“He only missed church twice for the year. Last weekend he was even helping them replace the roof. This is the most shocking news ever. He didn’t deserve this.”

Superintendent Neville Sankar, head of the Western Division yesterday told Newsday that police have not been able to pinpoint the motive behind the rash of shootings, but assured that the TTPS is putting things in place to stymie the increase.

“Criminals have taken a different trend within the past week, and we are getting all different types of reasons for the shootings,” Sankar said.

“We cannot say that the shootings are random; the criminals may have an intended target, but people around them end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

A SHEPHERD at a spiritual baptist church was found dead along with a 36-year-old man at a house on Freedom Street in Coco rite. The two men have been identified as Damien Maingot, 38, and Dwayne Marchano, 36.

Maingot's relatives told Newsday he was so devoted to his job as shepherd in the church he would even walk from his home in Cocorite, to the St Peters Spiritual Baptist Church, located in St Ann's.

"It doesn't matter what he has to do, every Sunday he would make it to the church, clean it and prepare the altar for mass. Last weekend he was even helping them replace the roof of the church."

Police reports said officers were on patrol in the Cocorite area at about 1 am on Wednesday, when they heard gunshots. Upon checking on Freedom Street, they found the two men dead in a room at a two-storey house.

The area was processed and the bodies of Maingot and the second man, identified as Dwayne Marchano, were removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James under the orders of a DMO.