KILLERS STRIKE BACK

DEAD: Nathan Cummings
DEAD: Nathan Cummings

JENSEN LA VENDE and NALINEE SEELAL

THE day after Police Commissioner Gary Griffith boasted that the murder toll was less than the number of days in the year for the first time in 14 years, six men were murdered with the latest killing happening yesterday afternoon, taking the toll to 20 in 16 days.

Speaking on TV6's Beyond the Tape on Monday evening, Griffith said: "There were about 30-odd homicides at this time last year, This year there's 13. I think it is the first time in about 14 years that TT can say that there are more days in the year than homicides. So I'm not saying we're there, but we've started on the right foot."

After his first Operation Strike Back for the year last weekend, Griffith said there was a turnaround in criminal activities. Griffith in a media release on Sunday, hours after completing a 48-hour long exercise said then that there were 11 recorded homicides for the year, when compared to 26 for the same period in 2018. The top cop said police are pegging back the criminal elements, who for far too long felt they controlled the country. After the 48-hour-long exercise, 138 people were arrested for various offences.

In the most recent of the six murders, an attempted murderer was ambushed and murdered at Seventh Avenue, Malick, Barataria yesterday afternoon. Police said Kevon Robertson, 33, managed to drive his car a short distance after being shot and was declared dead at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. He was shot around 2.30 pm. Police said on Tuesday, Robertson was the driver in an attempted murder of a Barataria man. The man was shot at but the gunman missed.

On Tuesday evening, in three separate shootings, five men were killed: two sets of friends in two double murders, and a father of two who wanted to join the protective services. A seventh man was found in the trunk of a burnt car in Tobago. Police are awaiting the autopsy report before confirming if Dwarika Moses, 20, of Les Coteaux was murdered. His charred remains were found in the back seat of the car around 2 am yesterday at Belmont Road, Mason Hall. Police and fire officials responded to a report of a car on fire. After the blaze was put out, Moses' body was found.

Police said around 9 pm on Tuesday, Nathan Cummings, 25, of Tourmaline Street, Demerara Heights, Wallerfield and his childhood friend Yahvel Joseph, 22, of Building 7 West, Maloney Gardens, were standing outside Joseph’s home when a car stopped and a gunman shot at them. The two were taken to hospital where they were declared dead at 9.30 pm.

DEAD: Yahvel Joseph

Joseph’s aunt Samantha Joseph, who spoke with the media at the Forensic Sciences Complex, St James, said her nephew was an on-again off-again employee with the Tunapuna Regional Corporation. She said he was an ambitious young man who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and work for WASA. She said he was called to his murder.

“He was at home and he get a call telling him to come and lime, and he went with his brother Jahvel. Now he and the fella who call him dead.”

Cummings’ relatives said the father of one was nicknamed “Homer” because he resembled the cartoon character Homer Simpson. Relatives said Cummings was repeatedly warned about liming on the road, as it is dangerous. One male relative said Cummings escaped death twice in car accidents and had been advised if he and his friends were to lime in the area, to do it at the back of, or in the house and not in front near the road. They too denied that Cummings was affiliated with gang activity.

Two hours after the two men were killed, another double murder took place, this time in El Dorado. Police said two masked men opened fire on a group of men on Marcano Drive in Upper El Dorado Road, Tunapuna. Akash Dookie, 20, of El Dorado and Darius Joseph, 19, were killed.

Darius Joseph

Dookie’s sister Kamini Dhanraj-Matura said her brother, a part-time DJ who went by the sobriquet “DJ Short Boss,” had plans to become a doctor. She said he confided in her that after getting his driver’s permit he planned to enrol in medical school. Dookie was due to sit his driver’s exam in April.

He was near the home of 32-year-old Charisse Bramble, who was murdered at her El Dorado Road, Tunapuna home the night before. It was first believed that he was at Bramble’s wake, but he was liming with friends for one of their birthdays.

Another murder happened at 11.30 pm. Police said officers of the Port of Spain Task Force and Criminal Investigations Department were told of a shooting in Maryland Hill, Belmont. They found the body of Dwayne “Bravo” James, 28, behind the wheel of his orange Nissan Cube car. His cousins, who spoke with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, said the father of two would have celebrated his 29th birthday on January 31.

The women, identified as Fayola James, “Baby” and Lateefa, described James as a jovial man. They said James lived at Brathwaite Street, Belmont and was a taxi driver. He initially wanted to join the protective services but could not because of a tattoo on his forearm. The women recalled that James would take their phones and photograph himself. His most recent photograph was taken on Baby’s cellphone a day before he was killed .

“Everyone liked Dwayne. No one will want to kill him. We are in shock. When we heard about it, we thought it was some kinda mistaken identity. "He was not in anything illegal. The most he would have done was drive without his seatbelt and he had plenty tickets for that. They called him ‘Ticket Boss' for that," they recalled.

Police are regarding the six killings as gang-related, although they have not identified any of the deceased as gang-affiliated. Last week, Griffith said every effort is being made to deal with gang-related murders, and said new anti-crime measures had been put in place to do so.

People killed for the year so far:

January 1: Samuel Sookdeo

January 2: Kyron Bartholomew, Keenan Smith

January 4: Kelvis Dexter Rennie, Anton Jacelon-Moore

January 6: Kenneth Nagim

January 7: Garvey Campo

January 8: Oswald Alleyne, Mark Stephen

January 10: Marcus Haynes

January 13: Ashton Torres

January 14: Brandon Barker, Rupert Ellis Derrick, Charisse Bramble

January 15: Yahvel Joseph, Nathan Cummings, Dwayne James, Darius Joseph, Akash Dookie

January 16: Kevon Robertson

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