Derek Chin concerned crime will hurt businesses

UPDATE:

Businessman Derek Chin is concerned that the state of crime, gang-related shootings and murders will begin to hurt businesses, and he is also fearful that this could result in workers being sent home.

Chin was responding to a shooting incident on Wednesday night which started at PriceSmart at his MovieTowne complex at Invaders Bay, Mucurapo, and ended with the victim running into MovieTowne shortly after 6 pm.

In that incident, a Sea Lots man in his late 40’s was shot in both legs, during what police described as a gang-related shooting.

A 14-year-old boy who was initially thought to have been shot by a stray bullet, was actually injured after falling in a store at Movie Towne and suffered cuts to his knees.

Police detained a man and a woman after the shooting. They were questioned for several hours on Wednesday night.

Yesterday, Chin said he had received several phone calls asking if he was all right, because social media reported he had been shot. He said he is not encouraged by a lot of fake news on social media and hopes people who share information will verify it before causing widespread panic.

Asked by Newsday if the incident on Wednesday could hurt his businesses, he said: “We are doing our best to minimise the issues, but this is a place with so much activity and so many people. We are not isolated from the level of crime that goes on in the country. We are part of TT and obviously there are high incidents of crime and a little bit will come by us.”

He said the scourge of crime is not helping this country and people have already started to stay away from public places because of the fear of crime.

“Crime affects everyone, and it is not good to have a country with this level of crime and murders. This is going to affect this country as a destination, and will affect business.
“People will eventually be afraid to come out, and it is happening already.

“We need to put pressure in the right places to see if we could come together as a business community to deal with this crime scourge. We are open to discussion. We employ hundreds of people and when business is affected they will be affected as well,” Chin said.

Chin said Movie Towne Mall has more CCTV cameras than any other mall in the country and security has been beefed up as a result of some isolated incidents but despite these measures, there is nothing preventing people from illicit activity at the mall, because hundreds of people pass through it when businesses are open there.

Yesterday Western Division Police investigating the shooting at PriceSmart said arrests are imminent.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Businessman Derek Chin is concerned that the state of crime, gang-related shootings and murders will begin to hurt businesses, and he is also fearful that this could result in workers being sent home.

Chin was responding to a shooting incident on Wednesday night which started at PriceSmart at his MovieTowne complex at Invaders Bay, Mucurapo, and ended with the victim running into MovieTowne shortly after 6 pm.

In that incident, a Sea Lots man in his late 40's was shot in both legs, during what police described as a gang-related shooting.

A 14-year-old boy who was initially thought to have been shot by a stray bullet,was actually injured after falling in a store at Movie Towne and suffered cuts to his knees.

Police detained a man and a woman after the shooting. They were questioned for several hours on Wednesday night.

Chin said he had received several phone calls asking if he was all right, because social media reported he had been shot. He said he is not encouraged by a lot of fake news on social media and hopes people who share information will verify it before causing widespread panic.