Three years after husband murdered in Tobago –WOMAN GUNNED DOWN

POLICE and undertakers were kept very busy over the weekend as six people were murdered – three on Saturday and three on Sunday – in separate and unrelated incidents.

Among the murders on Sunday were a Carenage businesswoman whose violent death poured fresh grief on her relatives, almost three years after her husband was found murdered in Tobago.

Police said Radica Dabideen, 69, was attending to a man whom she believed to be a customer on Sunday at 8.45 am, at the family's businessplace, Ravi's by the Bay, in Carenage.

Grainy CCTV images posted to social media showed the gunman entering the businessplace and standing near the counter. He is seen interacting with Dabideen in the video.

He looks to the left and then right before stretching his hand into an opening in the burglar-proofed counter. The video then shows him moving off quickly. Another segment of the video shows a hand firing a gun and then Dabideen falling to the ground.

In June 2020, Dabideen's husband Koongebeharry Jaisarie, 64, was found buried near a then incomplete structure in Milford Road, Lowlands, Tobago. He left his Carenage home on June 4 to conduct business in Tobago.

On June 23, his body was found buried near the incomplete structure. A police release later in 2020 said Nigel Winchester, Dwayne Marcelle, Kourtney Grayson and Margaret Waheed Jattan were arrested and charged for Jaisarie's murder.

When Newsday visited the businessplace on Sunday, a relative who asked not to be identified, described Dabideen as a kind person who often gave credit to those customers who regularly supported her business.

She was the mother of two children and grandmother of four. Police were still at the scene when Newsday arrived.

The six murders moved the toll from 230 as of Friday to 236 on Sunday evening.

On Sunday, in addition to Dabideen’s murder, 44-year-old Garib Gowrin was killed in his Freeport home, while 24-year-old Nyron Augustus was found dead in Calvary Hill, Arima.

Reports said Gowrin was originally from St Joseph and moved to Freeport two years ago. At around 10 am, residents saw smoke coming from Gowrin’s house and called the Fire Service. The police were also called.

Gowrin's partially burnt body was later found with what appeared to be stab wounds.

There were also reports of a shooting at Farm Road, St Joseph on Sunday where the victim was later taken to hospital. Up to press time, his identity and medical condition were unknown.

Regarding the murder of Augustus, police could provide no details other than his body being found in Calvary Hill on Sunday.

On Saturday, three men were killed in separate incidents. They were Keshorn Ottley of La Horquetta, Steven Philip of Petit Valley and Roger Maraj of Trainline Village.

A Sunday Newsday report said Maraj moved out of the Trainline Village, St Augustine three months ago to avoid an ongoing turf war.

However, while selling coconuts at about 8.40 am on Saturday, he was shot dead by gunmen in a black Toyota Aqua.

In a media release on May 18, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher said the police was regularly reviewing and updating its operations and strategies, with a view of reducing the incidence of crime and the fear of crime as it worked to make every place in TT safe.

Efforts to reach Commissioner Harewood-Christopher for a comment on the latest murders, proved futile. Autopsies are expected to be done on the weekend murders, sometime this week. Investigations are ongoing.