[UPDATED] Relative of murdered Grande man: I wasn't feeling safe in that community

The relative of a murdered Sangre Grande labourer said she left the area where he was gunned down earlier this year, as it became too dangerous.

Police said 20-year-old Stephon Saroopsingh, alias "Baboo," was liming with friends at a bus shed on Blake Avenue, at around 8.10 pm when two gunmen walked out of nearby bushes and shot at the group.

Saroopsingh was shot several times, while his friends ran away. They returned shortly after to find Saroopsingh bleeding in the street.

Sangre Grande police went to the scene with a district medical officer, who declared him dead.

Police said he was known to them.

No motive has been established for his murder.

Speaking with Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on Thursday, one of Saroopsingh's relatives said he was killed near the house where six-year-old Kylie Meloney was gunned down on January 8.

She said residents often avoided venturing outdoors past a certain hour as it was dangerous, and left the community shortly after Kylie's murder.

"I moved out of my neighbourhood when they shot the little girl – she got shot two houses away from me.

"They shot up that area twice before, since that girl died. That's why I left. I wasn't feeling safe."

She admitted that while Saroopsingh was "not a saint" and was known to have a temper, she felt he was killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Everybody was in the road, it's eight o'clock in the night. People are buying bread, cockset and so on, and these people came out from a side road near the shop and just opened fire."

The relative said it was not the first time she has had to deal with the murder of a close relative, as another family member, Anthony Bucchan, was shot dead in La Horquetta in 2018.

She said Saroopsingh was the father of a five-month-old girl.

In an unrelated incident less than an hour later, a 34-year-old Tunapuna man was gunned down in the front yard of his home.

Police said relatives of Keon Alexander were at their St Thomas Street, Tunapuna, home at around 9 pm when they heard gunshotsand saw Alexander bleeding in the front yard.

Officers from the Tunapuna Police Station who were on patrol nearby received a report and visited the scene.

A district medical officer visited the scene and ordered Alexander's body removed to the Forensic Science Centre for autopsy.

Crime-scene investigators reportedly found 25 spent shells and two live rounds of ammunition.

No arrest had been made, up to press time.

Police from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region II are investigating both murders.

The murder toll for 2023 is 121 compared to 113 for the same period last year.