2 men shot dead on Churchill Roosevelt Highway

TWO men were shot dead on Monday night, continuing the bloodshed over the Easter period.

Police report that at about 8.20 pm, officers responded to a shooting along the west bound lanes of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, near Oropune Gardens, Piarco.

On arrival, they found the bodies of two men inside a beige Nissan Almera which had crashed into a metal barrier.

The men were later identified as Carlsbury Lewis, 43, the driver of the car, of Mohammed Street, St Augustine, and Shamba Chandler, his passenger.

Police said Chandler who had several addresses – Maracas-St Joseph, Mt Dor, Champs Fleurs, was a suspect in several shootings and murders.

There were bullet holes in the car's windscreen, bonnet, front doors and the right back door.

Police said about five minutes before the report, a car – make and model unknown – drove alongside Lewis and its occupants opened fire on the two men.

The killers also shot at a Suzuki Baleno driven by a Sangre Grande man, who had to pull aside and run out of his car for cover. He escaped without injury.

Police recovered seven 7.62 mm shell casings, 11, 5.56 mm and 12.9 mm casings at the scene. The double murder takes the total to date to 159. There were six murders between Good Friday and Easter Monday, including one in Tobago and an Arima woman. A man's body was also found but the cause of death is unknown.