'If you see people' – Big lime in Bethel before Monday night shooting

Residents of Bethel, Tobago, gathered in shock on Monday night as messages echoed throughout the village of a shooting near Egypt Junction.

The shooting left one man dead and three others seriously injured at hospital.

Dead is Ryan Thornhill, 61, of Riseland, Bethel. He is Tobago’s first murder victim for 2021.

Police said around 8.05 pm on Monday, Thornhill; Deon Thomas, 22, of Mot Mot Avenue, Sou Sou Lands; Bobby Roberts, 25, of Beverly Hills, Bethel; and Enoch O’Brian, of 10 Caledonia Road, Mt St George, were at Main Street, Bethel, with a group of other people when a man with a gun emerged from some nearby bushes and started shooting in the direction of the gathering.

Thornhill was hit in the left shoulder and Thomas and Roberts were shot in the abdomen. O’Brian was shot in the left hip.

The men were taken to the Scarborough General Hospital, where Thornhill later died of his injuries.

Thomas and Rogers had emergency surgery and O’Brian is being attended to at the Accident and Emergency Department.

When Newsday visited the scene on Monday night at around 9.30 pm, police had already cordoned off the area.

Residents and onlookers gathered as police worked at the scene.

One resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that there had been a lime from very early that morning enacting the Carnival Monday morning J’Ouvert celebrations on an empty piece of land.

“When I came out here heading to work this (Monday) morning at around 6 am, I saw lots of people around liming,” he said, adding that the police stopped it shortly after.

But, he said: “By the time I checked my phone around half eight, I see someone had put up a status saying that the crowd had tripled the size.

"By the time I got back into the village later in the day and I turned and looked at that area where they were liming. If you see people!”

He said when he heard the shots, he walked out to see what was happening.

“When I got here, the consensus of everyone was that the man came from the bushes – that is what I heard. People have been talking of a drive-by, but it was no drive-by, the gunman was within proximity, because they are saying that he came from the bushes.”

One woman said she heard the gunshots from her home.

“I never hear gunshots like that yet. Seems like I am living in a western town.

“It's real shocking and very worrying to think that this sort of thing is happening. You don't expect this sort of thing to happen here, so close to home. It was like something out of a movie and people were in shock.”

Acting Supt Kirk, W/Ag Insp Fraser-Ramsey, Sgt Alfred, W/Sgt Joefield, of the Homicide Bureau, Sgt Wilson and police from the Crown Point and Shirvan stations and the Emergency Response Patrol Unit visited the scene. Investigations are continuing.–With reporting by Corey Connelly