sto­ries Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

With on­ly sev­en days in­to 2024, four un­re­lat­ed mur­ders be­tween Sat­ur­day evening and yes­ter­day af­ter­noon have pushed the mur­der toll to 13.

In the lat­est in­ci­dent of vi­o­lence, a 26-year-old loader was gunned down af­ter work­ing on Car­ni­val booths around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said Akeil Archer was in the tray of a brown Maz­da T3500 truck on a paved area near the Pad­dock when a white four door pick up truck drove in the path of the ve­hi­cle block­ing it.

Gun­men got out of the white truck as Archer jumped out of the tray and ran to a grassy area near­by.

He was chased and shot by the gun­men who got back in their ve­hi­cle and sped off.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene, of­fi­cers of the Cen­tral Po­lice Sta­tion ques­tioned work­ers and passers-by as crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors col­lect­ed ev­i­dence.

One man, who was near­by when the shoot­ing be­gan, said he was shak­en af­ter hear­ing the gun­shots, not­ing the swift sud­den na­ture of such killings.

The man said he felt that Archer was the in­tend­ed tar­get, not­ing that oth­er work­ers near­by were ig­nored.

“It isn’t a nice feel­ing at all. There are men who ducked down un­der the dash­board of their ve­hi­cle when they see those fel­las come out with those kinds of guns,” the man said.

One work­er, who asked not to be named, said they were ac­cus­tomed to work­ing along­side Archer to load ma­te­ri­als for the con­struc­tion of the booths, but did not know much about his back­ground or whether he was in­volved in any­thing il­le­gal.

“I am a big man to a lot of these younger guys so I try not to in­volve my­self with them or what­ev­er it is they are talk­ing about.

“I keep my dis­tance. I al­ways knew him to be a cour­te­ous guy but you nev­er know what peo­ple are in­volved in,” the work­er said.

One man, who was in the area near­by when the shoot­ing be­gan, said he felt that be­ing so close to a mur­der gave him a new per­spec­tive on life.

“I am an old­er man and I have my son and grand­chil­dren vis­it­ing from away. They sup­posed to go back to­day but as soon as I get home I go­ing and hug them up,” he said.

He added that oth­er work­ers could have been wound­ed or killed in the at­tack and said there was need to have se­cu­ri­ty post­ed at the sa­van­nah to bet­ter se­cure the area.

He warned that if this was not done, truck dri­vers and load­ers could choose to stay away from work­ing at the site.

“They need to be re­al­ly care­ful about the peo­ple they choos­ing to work with us here be­cause we don’t know what peo­ple are in­volved in.

“But more than that they need to have a meet­ing to­mor­row (Mon­day) to talk about what we’re go­ing to do with se­cu­ri­ty.

“It have one truck dri­ver said he done with this al­ready, I won’t go so far but they need to have se­cu­ri­ty here oth­er­wise this work will shut down.”

When Archer’s grief-strick­en rel­a­tives vis­it­ed the scene, one fe­male rel­a­tive crossed the po­lice line and walked up to his body which lay next to a stack of wood used to build the booths.

She was es­cort­ed back to the out­side of the perime­ter by po­lice at the scene.

One rel­a­tive said he did not know Archer to be in­volved in any­thing il­le­gal and lament­ed the un­pre­dictable na­ture of vi­o­lence in T&T.

He said Archer worked hard to pro­vide for his two-year-old son whom he adored.

Asked why any­one would want to harm Archer, the rel­a­tive said he sus­pect­ed he was tar­get­ed be­cause of the neigh­bour­hood he lived in.

“He was from Laven­tille and I can tell you it isn’t al­ways be­cause you’re in­volved in some­thing that peo­ple want to hurt you.

“This is all about lo­ca­tion. He is from one place and peo­ple from an­oth­er neigh­bour­hood don’t like that,” the rel­a­tive said.

Hours ear­li­er on Sat­ur­day night, 44-year-old Adri­an Sta­tum was shot dead on Bartlett Road, Palmiste, Long­denville.

Al­so on Sat­ur­day, Shakell George, 25, was shot and killed by men in a black Nis­san X-Trail at the cor­ner of Wal­cott Lane and Belle Eau Road in Bel­mont at around 7.30 pm.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said George told rel­a­tives that he was go­ing to sell an item near­by be­fore leav­ing home.

In an un­re­lat­ed in­ci­dent, bar own­er Vick­ram Ram­lal was gunned down out­side his Pasea Main Road busi­ness­place at around 6.45 pm.

Po­lice said Ram­lal, 48, was sit­ting on a stool out­side when a gun­man walked up to him and shot him sev­er­al times be­fore get­ting in­to a red Toy­ota Yaris and speed­ing off.

Ram­lal was tak­en to hos­pi­tal where he was de­clared dead around 7.20 pm.

The gun­men crashed the car in a drain on Prescott Lane short­ly af­ter and were seen run­ning away through the Tu­na­puna Ceme­tery.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene yes­ter­day, bul­let holes from the shoot­ing were still vis­i­ble on the wall of the bar.

One of Ram­lal’s neigh­bours said Ram­lal was seen do­ing ren­o­va­tions on the bar re­cent­ly and worked hard to make it a suc­cess.

He said he re­mem­bered Ram­lal as a friend­ly, gen­er­ous man who did his best to pro­vide for his wife and teenage daugh­ter.

He added that the mur­der shook the com­mu­ni­ty as every­one knew Ram­lal as an easy­go­ing man.

“All now by the dou­bles stand there would be peo­ple lin­ing up to buy dou­bles, but every­one heard about what hap­pened last night. No­body wants to go any­where near that bar where it hap­pened now be­cause peo­ple are scared,” he said.