A Mar­aval busi­ness­man was yes­ter­day shot dead out­side his restau­rant.An­tho­ny Chin, 61, of Hills­boro, Mar­aval, was found in a pool of blood in front of his busi­ness place, Chi­na Palace Restau­rant, at Eller­slie Plaza, Mar­aval.Po­lice, who were on pa­trol at the time, said that at around 11.55 am, they re­spond­ed af­ter hear­ing three gun­shots in the area.Re­ports are that Chin was talk­ing on his cell­phone out­side the restau­rant when two gun­men ap­proached him, shoot­ing him once in the back. He col­lapsed and was shot again in the back of the head, as he lay on the ground.

As they fled the scene, Chin's at­tack­ers re­port­ed­ly fired a warn­ing shot to scare off se­cu­ri­ty guards sta­tioned at the fa­cil­i­ty.Work­ers at the restau­rant were prepar­ing to serve lunch at the time of the at­tack. Po­lice said Chin was not robbed dur­ing the in­ci­dent and they had not ruled out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of that the in­ci­dent might be con­nect­ed to the kid­nap­ping of Chi­nese na­tion­al and restau­ra­teur, Xue Hua Shan, in Barataria, on April 13. In­spec­tor Gaf­far and Sgt Lu­cas of the Port-of-Spain CID are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. (DA)