2 shot dead,murder toll at 10

MONTHS after seaman Mark Stephen reported to police that he has been threatened by a man, he and a co-worker were shot dead early yesterday morning near Stephen’s Princes Town home.

Relatives said the threats last year was over a woman and they believed 41-year-old Stephen, a father of one, was marked for death. The other victim, Stephen’s co-worker Oswald “Ozzy” Alleyne, 63, was killed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The shooting happened along King Street and is the first double-homicide for the year. Up to press time, the murder toll stood at ten in eight days.

Alleyne was reversing his van on to King Street, out of Stephen’s home, after picking him up at about 4.20 am when a man walked up to the driver’s side and fired several shots before running off to a car parked further up the road which he got into and drove off.

A report was made to police and officers arrived and turned off the van’s engine. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.

“It was Mark they wanted. The threats had to do with something involving a woman. Somebody was plotting to kill and were marking him. There are no other motives for this that I can think off,” said a relative of Stephen. Both victims worked with a contractor for an offshore company. Alleyne, a father of four, lived at Watts Road in New Grant.

Both men were heading to the marine base in Point Fortin, formerly known as the Trinmar Marine Base. They were expected to go to an offshore platform.

Yesterday, friends of Alleyne described him as a generous man who was also known as the “godfather” of Bakie’s Bar on Market Street in Princes Town.

“Yesterday, he treated everybody to a rounds (of beer) at the bar. He paid for all the drinks. Ozzy was very friendly and loved to spend his money on his friends. This morning, people were crying in the bar when they heard the news. He was a generous person who did not deserve to this world in the manner he did,” said a relative.

At the Forensic Science Centre in St James, Stephen’s common-law wife of 16 years was inconsolable as she waited on his death certificate. The woman said that as he was leaving, “he waved at me and then got in the van,” said the woman who asked not to be identified. Seconds later, Stephen and Alleyne were shot.

Alleyne’s relatives described the double murder as senseless. “Ozzy was such a loving and helpful person,” said a relative at the Centre. “He was the one person you could count on if you needed help.”