Rhon­dor Dowlat

Five peo­ple were killed in less than 24 hours yes­ter­day, three of them in ap­par­ent gang war­fare in Bel­mont, as gun-tot­ing crim­i­nals con­tin­ued their killing spree, send­ing the toll to ten for the year so far.

The blood­shed start­ed on Wednes­day night when a Va­len­cia man was killed by an an­gry ban­dit dur­ing a home in­va­sion, while res­i­dents found an uniden­ti­fied man shot to death in El So­cor­ro, San Juan.

Two peo­ple were al­so wound­ed in a shoot­ing in­ci­dent in St Joseph yes­ter­day.

The mur­der at El So­cor­ro oc­curred at about 2.15 pm at Jat­tan Trace but the vic­tim was uniden­ti­fied up to last night.

The coun­try's first dou­ble mur­der was record­ed in Bel­mont ear­li­er in the day.

One of the men, iden­ti­fied as Matthew "Smeagol" Sim­mons, who po­lice said was a gang leader, was a pas­sen­ger in a car when he was killed. Po­lice said he had ear­li­er been at the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court.

The oth­er man, who lat­er suc­cumbed to gun­shot wounds at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, was iden­ti­fied as Os­wald Bai­ley. Bai­ley, 24, was found ly­ing on the road­way wear­ing a black ski mask.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, the shoot­ings oc­curred at about 11 am along Bel­mont Cir­cu­lar Road. Both men were found in front of a res­i­den­tial build­ing and with­in earshot of a cou­ple of schools and the po­lice sta­tion. Po­lice said the ve­hi­cle Sim­mons was in was blocked by two oth­er ve­hi­cles and masked men came out one of them and shot Sim­mons. Po­lice be­lieve one of the shoot­ers, who was Bai­ley, was ei­ther shot by his part­ner or by Sim­mons or one of his men.

A gun was al­so re­cov­ered on the scene. Po­lice said Sim­mons lived close to where he was killed.

At about 3 pm, an uniden­ti­fied man was al­so killed at Gon­salves, Bel­mont, in what was said to be a reprisal for the ear­li­er killings.

In yes­ter­day's shoot­ing in­ci­dent, Ker­lan "Mice Man" George, 40, and his wife were on their way to their La Sei­va Vil­lage, Mar­aval, home at about 2.30 pm in their black SUV when gun­men opened fire on them.

George was shot on the hand and his wife in the face. The in­ci­dent oc­curred in St Joseph near the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre.

George was tak­en to Med­ical As­so­ciates and his wife to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mount Hope.

In an un­re­lat­ed in­ci­dent, po­lice are seek­ing the pub­lic's as­sis­tance to iden­ti­fy the bod­ies of two men found dead on Wednes­day.

In the first in­ci­dent around 4.30 pm, Plais­sance Road, San Juan, res­i­dents heard gun­shots in the area. Short­ly af­ter, the body of a man of African de­cent was found ly­ing in an open area near the St Phillip Pri­ma­ry School.

The man, who was found with mul­ti­ple gun­shots to the head, was wear­ing a yel­low T-shirt, black Levi jeans and blue slip­pers. He ap­peared to be in his late 30s.

In the sec­ond in­ci­dent, the de­com­posed body of a man was found along the Au­drey Jef­fers High­way at about 6.30 pm.

Both bod­ies were sent to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James.

Al­so on Wednes­day at about 6 pm an uniden­ti­fied man was gunned down at a bas­ket­ball court in Pic­ton Road, Laven­tille.

And on Tues­day, mi­ni mart own­er Quin­cy George was shot in the face and body while at his busi­ness.

He was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mount Hope, but suc­cumbed to his in­juries on Wednes­day morn­ing.

George's mur­der was the sec­ond to have oc­curred in the area.

On Mon­day, busi­ness­man Randy Bood­han was shot dead while at his busi­ness­place "In­ter­net Caf� Min­i­Mart and DVD Movies" at Co­corite Road, Tumpuna Road, Ari­ma.

The first mur­der for 2016 oc­curred on New Year's night at about 9.20 pm, when Ravi Maniedeo, 27, was killed near his home at Old Long­denville Road.

He was shot in the head as he was about to get out of his black Hon­da Ac­cord af­ter pulling up out­side his apart­ment build­ing.hot dead while at his busi­ness­place "In­ter­net Caf� Min­i­Mart and DVD Movies" at Co­corite Road, Tumpuna Road, Ari­ma.

The first mur­der for 2016 oc­curred on New Year's night at about 9.20 pm, when Ravi Maniedeo, 27, was killed near his home at Old Long­denville Road.

He was shot in the head as he was about to get out of his black Hon­da Ac­cord af­ter pulling up out­side his apart­ment build­ing.