MURDER NATION

SHANE SUPERVILLE and NALINEE SEELAL

IN LESS than three days, between last Friday and Sunday, 11 people were murdered in various parts of the country, causing the murder toll to leap from 436 to 447.

The Forensic Science Centre in St James was a hive of activity yesterday as relatives of the murder victims turned up to witness the autopsies and sign for receipt of death certificates. One woman, standing outside the centre, held her head as she lamented that nowhere in this country is safe from the reach of the gunman. In this report, Newsday chronicles the murder spree which kept police busy over the past weekend.

AWARD-HOLDER KILLED

The blood-letting began on Friday at 1.30 pm, when national award-holder Haseena Ali was stabbed several times in what investigators believe was a failed home invasion.

Newsday understands Ali may have known her killers and police suspect the criminals may have been employed by her recently and were waiting for an opportunity to strike at her Freeport home.

They set Ali’s home ablaze in a crude attempt to make it appear that she died as a result of the fire.

An autopsy showed Ali died of multiple stab wounds.

No arrests have been made in relation to her murder. Ali was awarded a Public Service Medal of Merit (Gold) during the Independence Day awards ceremony in 2012. She would have celebrated her 75th birthday on Sunday.

MISSING MAN TURNS UP DEAD

Also last Friday, at 2 pm, members of the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) responded to reports of a foul smell at Mentor Alley in Morvant, where the body of Derek Constance, 30, was found in a shallow grave. The Diego Martin man had been reported missing on October 28 by his wife. He was last seen plying his taxi for hire in the La Puerta area.

Investigators believe an argument between Constance and another man last month may have been the reason behind his murder. Lawmen suspect he was lured to his death by someone pretending to be in need of his taxi service.

EX-CON SHOT

Hours later on Friday, at 7 pm in Marabella, ex-convict Shazard Abdool was shot dead at the Naughty Girl Bar, where he was liming with his sisters.

According to reports, a masked gunman entered the bar where Abdool was sitting and fired at him. Abdool was hit several times. His sisters were also wounded but survived.

The 33-year-old Abdool was released from prison in August after serving three and a half years on firearms charges.

STABBED TO DEATH

At 8.15 pm on Friday, police on patrol in downtown Port of Spain were told a man had been stabbed during an argument on Independence Square.

Danny Matthew, 38, of Laventille Road, Morvant, was liming with his girlfriend when he got into an argument with another man, who pulled out a knife and stabbed Matthew several times. He was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where he died while being treated. The killer remains at large.

“DARKO” DEAD

Hours later at 10.15 pm, 26-year-old Kerwin Davis, aka “Darko,” was shot dead while liming at a bar in Pashley Street, Laventille. Davis was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital by another customer but died of his injuries.

At the Forensic Science Centre yesterday, Davis’s relatives said while he was known to be affiliated with criminals and sold marijuana, he was not involved in robberies.

“Right now I don’t think anywhere is safe, to be honest,” said one relative, who asked not to be identified. “Look at the amount of people here in this place (Forensics) right now. All of us here to collect our dead loved ones. At any point, someone somewhere can just come out with guns blazing,”

Friday alone saw five murders committed in less than nine hours.

MURDER IN THE MORNING

On Saturday morning, gunshots filled the air in Piquette Lane, St Barb’s. At 6 am, the body of Christopher Skeete, 24, was found. Skeete returned from England four years ago and was living with his fiancee in Laventille.

Relatives who waited for his death certificate at Forensics yesterday said they were not concerned for his safety, although he lived in Laventille, and were surprised to learn of his death. Skeete had two children from a previous marriage, aged two and seven.

BUSINESSMAN KILLED

Hours later, at Anand’s Low Price Supermarket, Mosquito Creek in Debe, 34-year-old businessman Kadar Ali-Mark was shot and killed during a suspected robbery. He was involved in several businesses including Club 4Play, San Fernando and Anand’s Used Vehicle and Heavy Equipment. His killer remains at large.

BODIES NEAR BRIDGE

In the afternoon, the bullet-riddled bodies of Emile Coker, aka “Shrek,” and Cruz Gomez were found by passers-by near the Mitan bridge in Manzanilla.

Police said the bodies were found at 3 pm. Coker was found 60 feet from the bridge while Gomez’s body was at the back of an old shed.

Coker’s mother Norma Ottley Padmore said she was dazed on being told her son was dead. “I calling his phone hoping he would answer. But it kept going to voicemail. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I kept trying to call him the entire day.”

She said that at 9 pm on Saturday, she borrowed a neighbour’s phone and called her son’s cell number again. “A woman answered and said I had the wrong number. She said she was on a honeymoon with her husband and cursed me when I told her to put my son on the line,” Padmore said. Police said two suspects were arrested yesterday after being seen in Coker’s Nissan Tiida in Princes Town.

2 MORE STABBINGS

Murders ten and 11 took place on Sunday night, when two men were stabbed to death during an argument at a gas station in Montrose, Chaguanas.

Kellon Cruickshank, 31, and Chris Ragbir, 30, had an argument with the suspect. During the quarrel, he took a knife from his pocket and stabbed them several times.

The two injured men left in Ragbir’s car, which crashed near Pamela’s Cafe off Montrose Main Road. Police took them to the Chaguanas Health Centre, where Ragbir was pronounced dead on arrival. Cruickshank was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex but subsequently died.

Investigators said they have surveillance-camera footage of the incident and a 26-year-old Jamaican man has been arrested. This latest spate of murders comes less than a week after Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith said that three months ago, the country was heading for a murder figure for the year in excess of 600. Griffith stressed the ultimate barometer to verify the crime status of a country is homicide.

Neither Griffith nor Minister of National Security Stuart Young could be reached for comment yesterday as calls and WhatsApp messages to their cellphones were not answered.