Tobago ACP: White's murder might be gang-related

HEAD of the Tobago Division ACP Collis Hazel says police are exploring the possibility that the murder of Chiniqua White might be gang-related.

“The investigation is ongoing I can say at this point in time. It is moving at a pace,” he told Newsday.

“We are following some leads that it was gang-related. But the investigation is very intense so I don’t want to let anything out.”

White, 34, also called Chin, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Black Rock on Monday night.

The mother of one, who lived at Malick, Barataria, died while being treated at the Scarborough General Hospital. She was Tobago’s tenth murder victim for 2023.

Police said around 9.10 pm on Monday, White was seated in the front seat of a white Nissan Versa driven by a man along the Black Rock Main Road near the multipurpose facility.

The driver of a white Nissan Tiida, police said, pulled in front of the couple’s car and two men came out and started shooting.

Seeing that she had been shot, White’s driver sped off and took her to the hospital.

Newsday learnt that the couple was in Tobago along with several other people for the funeral of Kareem “Toppy” Romeo, 31, in Plymouth, on Monday.

Romeo, of Upper Seventh Avenue, Malick, Barataria, was shot during an altercation with officers of the Northern Eastern Division. He was taken to hospital by police but was later pronounced dead.

On Tuesday, Progressive Democratic Patriots political leader Watson Duke, in a Facebook post, lamented the island’s worsening crime situation and called on the Farley Augustine-led Tobago House of Assembly to urgently intervene.

“We need to take a serious stock of what is going on in Tobago. I am calling upon the THA, led by my colleague Farley Chavez Augustine, you have to take stock of this,” he said.

There have been numerous calls for the authorities to do more to stem the flow of illegal guns into the island via the Scarborough port and other points of entry.