Gunmen open fire, killing two men inside car – Murders on the highway

A 51-year-old father of three, whose relatives believe he took a PH job (private hire) to transport another man, was one of two men shot dead in a car off the Churchill Roosevelt Highway on Easter Monday night.

Police said Carlsbury Lewis of Mohammed Street, St Augustine and his passenger Shamba Chandler were killed instantly as bullets struck them as they sat inside Lewis' beige Nissan Almera car along the highway near Oropune Gardens in Piarco.

Chandler, police said, had two addresses – Maracas St Joseph and Mt D'or, Champs Fleurs. Police said Chandler was a suspect in several shootings and murders.

Police reported that at about 8.15 pm, Lewis was driving along the west-bound section of the highway when another car – make and colour unknown – pulled alongside them with the occupants firing shots at them.

As Lewis' car veered off the highway on to the shoulder, three men alighted from the other car and pointed assault rifles and opened fire, hitting the Almera's side, its front and its windscreen. Both Lewis and Chandler slumped over and died in the vehicle. The gunmen got back into their car which drove off.

A report was made and when police arrived, they found and seized seven 7.62 mm shell casings; 11 5.56mm shells and and 12 nine-millimetre casings at the scene. Police said the front windscreen was riddled with gunshots while bullets also penetrated the front doors of Lewis' car.

The district medical officer later ordered both bodies removed to the Forensic Science Centre.

At the centre in St James on Tuesday, a female relative of Lewis, who asked not to be identified, said she never expected to be interviewed for something like this. She said the last time her family were interviewed by reporters was several years ago on her grandmother's 100th birthday.

She lamented the state of crime in the country saying it had long passed the stage of overbearing. She called on people to pray.

“It's overbearing the crime situation right now. When you listen to the songs, they tell you how a criminal thinks and it's really appalling and disgusting.

"When you lose a family member to violence, it's not a normal death. They (the criminals) don't seem to know it, but they also take a part of you when they take your loved one," she said.

The woman said no government can be blamed for the crime as she asked rhetorically, "who then should be held responsible?

“This country needs to pray, open our hearts and pray to get this crime curbed because it is ridiculously overbearing. I don't have words to say exactly how I'm feeling, I am feeling-less at the moment. That’s the best way I can put it.”

The woman said Lewis was the first of five children and was a “hustler” who would sell scrap iron, work taxi and do odd jobs for extra cash. Lewis, a truck driver with the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation had just left the female relative's home shortly before he was killed.

“He was a good father, I can attest to that. I must say he loved his family, again I can say that for a fact. He was a family person.”

The woman said another relative was driving along the highway as the shooting took place and heard the gunshots and called her telling her that Lewis may have been shot. A second call, a short while later, confirmed that he was dead.

The killings took the murder toll to 160 for the year and pushed the toll over the long Easter weekend to seven. A man who was shot in Arima a few weeks ago and had been warded since then, succumbed to his injuries over the weekend.

WEEKEND BLOODSHED

GOOD FRIDAY:

Businessman Nicholas Zhu gunned down shortly after closing his San Juan grocery, Golden City Supermarket.

GLORIA SATURDAY:

Shamar “Shami” James shot dead at Unity Lane in Carapo, Arima.

Khanta Ramdass, 43, found murdered at Mud Plant Road, off Wilson Road, Barrackpore. He lived at No 10 Digity Branch Trace, Penal.

EASTER SUNDAY:

Moruga resident Alex “Papa” Cooper, 22, is found shot to death in a drain in Logwood Park, Scarborough.

EASTER MONDAY:

Elizabeth “Liz” Watson, 35, killed when gunmen opened fire on a group of limers at Pinto Road, Arima. Watson lived at Hoyte Avenue, Maturita, Arima, and was attending a birthday lime when the shooting took place.

Carlsbury Lewis and Shamba Chandler both killed as Lewis' car is riddled by gunmen in another car along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway near Oropune Gardens, Piarco.