An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Two sus­pects were held by po­lice hours af­ter gun­men opened fire on three men at Hillaire Street, Diego Mar­tin, on Wednes­day night.

Po­lice said An­fer­nee Rahim Eligon, 26, of Sa­van­nah Road #1, Diego Mar­tin, and Kalvin Levine, 30, of Green Hill Vil­lage, Diego Mar­tin, died at the St James In­fir­mary short­ly af­ter the shoot­ing.

A third man, aged 39, al­so from Hillaire Street, was still fight­ing for his life at the hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day. His rel­a­tives re­vealed he had two bul­lets lodged near his spine and had been ren­dered al­most paral­ysed as a re­sult.

Eligon, who worked at the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, was the fa­ther of a one-year-old son, while Levine was the fa­ther of an 11-year-old boy and worked as a couri­er and or­der­ly at West Shore Med­ical.

Rel­a­tives and po­lice said the trio had been lim­ing and drink­ing, as they usu­al­ly did, in the vicin­i­ty of Head Quar­ters Mi­ni Mart, Hillaire Street, around 6.30 pm on No­vem­ber 13, when a car came speed­ing down the street.

Three gun­men ran out and be­gan shoot­ing at the men. The sil­ver Nis­san AD Wag­on used by the at­tack­ers was lat­er found aban­doned at Boil­er Trace, Cameron Hill, Pe­tit Val­ley, with the keys still in the ig­ni­tion.

They were tak­en to the St James In­fir­mary where Eligon and Levine died a short while lat­er.

The third man, mean­while, was treat­ed and then trans­ferred to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Po­lice were called in and a co­or­di­nat­ed ex­er­cise was mount­ed, com­pris­ing of­fi­cers from the West­ern Di­vi­sion Gang In­tel­li­gence Unit (WDG­IU); the West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force (WDTF); and the West End Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment (CID).

The ex­er­cise led to the ar­rest of one man at Covi­gne Road, Diego Mar­tin, in con­nec­tion with a pre­vi­ous mur­der in the area.

Af­ter re­ceiv­ing a tip-off, of­fi­cers went to Up­per Rich­plain Road, where they ar­rest­ed two men for the mur­ders at Hillaire Street.

Over at Hillaire Street, foren­sic of­fi­cers col­lect­ed ten spent 5.56 mm shell cas­ings; 15 spent 9 mm shell cas­ings with the TTPS mark­ings on them; and three spent 9 mm shell cas­ings.

Rel­a­tives of the mur­dered men were still com­ing to terms with the in­ci­dent. They asked that they not be iden­ti­fied.

Speak­ing out­side the fam­i­ly’s home yes­ter­day, a close fe­male rel­a­tive of Eligon’s shared, “He was a nice per­son. Any­body you talk to coul­da tell you he was lov­ing. He nev­er raise his voice for you ... a re­spectable per­son.”

At Levine’s home, a fe­male rel­a­tive re­mem­bered him as a “Very fun per­son to be with, al­ways have you smil­ing, al­ways have you laugh­ing.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors were try­ing to de­ter­mine a mo­tive for the in­ci­dent.