Sascha Wil­son

Five peo­ple were killed in four sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in­volv­ing crim­i­nals armed with guns across Trinidad on Thurs­day, as the blood­let­ting con­tin­ued.

There were mur­ders in Care­nage, Waller­field, San Fer­nan­do and Port-of-Spain, as the mur­der toll crept up to 477 for the year thus far.

In the lat­est in­ci­dent, shocked pedes­tri­ans and on­look­ers de­scribed the cap­i­tal city as the “Port of Pain, not Spain,” af­ter they wit­nessed the cold-blood­ed mur­der of a street ven­dor on Hen­ry Street Thurs­day af­ter­noon.

The de­ceased was iden­ti­fied as An­ton Smart, 39, of Laven­tille.

Po­lice said short­ly af­ter 5 pm, Smart was seat­ed on a chair of­fer­ing his drinks and snack items for sale when he was ap­proached by a lone gun­man who shot him sev­er­al times.

How­ev­er, as the gun­man at­tempt­ed to run away, he was in­ter­cept­ed by po­lice of­fi­cers, who shot at him.

The wound­ed sus­pect, who of­fi­cers said is from Dun­can Street, was sub­se­quent­ly ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he was be­ing treat­ed while un­der heavy po­lice guard last night.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.

In an­oth­er of the in­ci­dents in south Trinidad, when res­i­dents heard loud ex­plo­sions ear­ly Thurs­day morn­ing, they thought they were fire­crack­ers in keep­ing with the fact that Hin­dus across the coun­try are cur­rent­ly at the height of Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions this week.

How­ev­er, they then heard their neigh­bour scream­ing, “Call the am­bu­lance.”

The woman’s 63-year-old hus­band, William Gopaul, a busi­ness­man, had been shot.

Ini­tial re­ports stat­ed that around 6.20 am, Gopaul was ex­er­cis­ing in his yard at Hill­piece Road, Phillip­ine, San Fer­nan­do, when a man wear­ing a yel­low ban­dan­na on his face ap­proached him.

He asked Gopaul for some­one named Ben­jamin.

Gopaul replied that he did not know that per­son. The sus­pect then pulled out a gun and fired three shots at him.

The at­tack­er then en­tered a ve­hi­cle, which sped off. Gopaul’s two young chil­dren were al­so at home. He died at the scene.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors re­cov­ered three .40 cal­i­bre cas­ings at the scene.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the area yes­ter­day, no one was at the home.

How­ev­er, res­i­dents said he was a qui­et per­son who kept to him­self. They said the fam­i­ly moved in­to the com­mu­ni­ty about 13 months ago and were rent­ing the prop­er­ty.

Gopaul was a US and Cana­da Visa con­sul­tant and own­er of Nan­otech­nol­o­gy at La Pique Plaza, San Fer­nan­do.

Po­lice are still try­ing to de­ter­mine a mo­tive. Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.