5 murders push murder toll to 20

FIVE murders on Tuesday night pushed the murder toll to 20 in the first 16 days of 2019. The body of a man was found in the trunk of a burnt car, but up to press time, this was still to be classed as a murder by police. If it is deemed a murder, the discovery of the body in the car trunk would be Tobago's first murder for the year and the toll would jump to 21.

At 9 pm, Nathan Cummings, 25, of Tourmaline Street, Demerara Heights, Wallerfield and Yahvel Joseph, 22, of Building 7 West, Maloney Gardens, were standing outside Cummings' home when a gunman shot them. The two were taken to hospital by police where they were declared dead at 9.30 pm.

Two hours later, two masked men stormed a house at Marcano Drive in Upper El Dorado Road, Tunapuna and shot at a group of men. Akash Dookie, 20, of El Dorado and Darius Joseph, 19, were shot dead at the scene.

Then at 11.30 pm, members of the Port of Spain Task Force and Criminal Investigations Department responded to reports of a shooting in Maryland Hill, Belmont. Police later saw the body of Dwayne Isiah James, 27, behind the wheel of his orange Nissan Cube car. He was pronounced dead at the scene by police.

Police said the upsurge of murders may be as a result of an increase in gang violence. Commissioner Gary Griffith insisted last week, that every effort is being made to deal with gang related murders, and revealed that new anti-crime measures have been put in place to do so.