Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A bloody massacre. Those were the words used by residents of Powder Magazine Phase 1 in Cocorite to describe a mass shooting which claimed the lives of four of their neighbours and left eight more seriously injured on Saturday night.
The shooting took place around 11 pm at the side of Building F which is used by residents as a recreation area. One of the victims operates a fast food stall under a tent there.
The residents were reportedly buying food and playing cards when a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire on them from across the road.
As the residents were attempting to scamper away, two men armed with handguns ran into the secluded area and shot at some of them before they and the other gunman escaped in a waiting vehicle.
Residents used their vehicles to transport the most critically injured to the St James Medical Complex, while others remained behind with those with lesser injuries until ambulances arrived at the scene.
The dead men were identified as Shaquille Ottley, 22, 57-year-old Antonio Jack, Sadiki Ottley, 31, and 36-year-old Jonathan Osmond.
The injured men are Kennan Downes, 26, Johan Anthony, 22, Jovan Huggins, 27, Moses Thomas, 19, Mylesy James, 39, Ro-Vaughn London, 23, Dwayne Elliot, 36, and 34-year-old Irvin Samuel.
All the surviving victims had gunshot injuries to their legs which were believed to have been inflicted by the first gunman based on the lower elevation he was standing on when he opened fire.
When a news team from Guardian Media visited the community the scene of the shooting appeared to be frozen in time. Empty and broken beer bottles and mismatched pairs of slippers were scattered around wide puddles of fly-covered congealed blood. Part of a deck of cards remained under a rock while loose cards blew in the wind.
Boxes of food remained around tables used at the food stall. An abandoned grill bore evidence of the shooting as a bullet struck one of the legs before hitting a wall.
Guardian Media spoke to several residents including one of the victims, who was grazed on his leg and was discharged yesterday morning.
“Right now, I don’t want anyone to know I out of the hospital,” the man said as he limped away.
Another resident described the shooting as surreal.
“I was playing Call of Duty inside. I heard the gunshots but the game was paused. When I come outside it was bodies on top of bodies. Like sardines,” he said.
A resident said he was saddened by the incident as the victims were not gang members.
“The thing that bothering me is that only innocent people get shoot,” he said.
“The burger man (James) is the coolest. He working security five nights a week and when he off he selling food for people in the community,” he said.
The man also explained that although Shaquille and Sadiki Ottley shared the same last name, they were not related.
“They had the same name but they was just close bredrins,” he said.
The residents suggested that the shooting was committed by members of a gang operating in the hills overlooking the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartment complex. They said it might have been connected to a major drainage project at the entrance to the community.
“This is not the first time. They come before and shoot up the place. Nobody get hit then, just the walls,” one man said, as he pointed to older bullet holes in the walls of the building.
Told that Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher and several senior police officers were on their way to tour the community, residents appeared apathetic as they slowly returned to their apartments.
“They home skinning and men outside dying,” one man said.
“We prefer Gary (former police commissioner Gary Griffith). He had his ways but you had to respect him,” he added.
Harewood-Christopher arrived in the community shortly after midday accompanied by several senior police officers and a contingent of heavily armed officers.
Speaking with the media after speaking to a handful of residents including Jack’s grieving wife, Harewood-Christopher described the shootings as senseless.
“Clearly these young people do not have any regard for life. It is not a situation that we condone,” she said.
She added that the shootings are receiving priority attention from the T&T Police Service (TTPS).
“I can assure the national community that all the required resources are applied so we have proper investigations done in this matter,” she said.
Harewood-Christopher revealed that initial intelligence gathered by homicide detectives indicated that the shootings were possibly committed by members of a gang attempting to expand their “turf”.
“The criminals cannot and will not control the turf. The communities control their turf,” she said.
Harewood-Christopher pleaded for assistance from residents to help solve the crime.
“We are trying to focus on forensic evidence but we still need the eyewitnesses,” she said.
“As a community, we would want persons to come together to make it known that illegal activities are not welcomed here. That is what we would be working towards.”
Responding to a resident who questioned the ability of the police to prosecute gang members, Harewood-Christopher sought to explain the difficulties regularly experienced by her officers.
“Information alone is not enough. We need evidence and without it, we cannot charge,” she said.
Asked whether the TTPS noticed a trend of attacking multi-apartment communities after five persons were killed and three wounded in Harpe Place in east Port-of-Spain in March, she said the incidents were unconnected.
Harewood-Christopher convened a high-powered meeting comprising the Deputy Commissioners of Operations and Intelligence and Investigations, the ACP Criminal Division, the Head of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, the Head of the Special Investigations Unit and heads of several other Operational Units to deal with the incident.
Western Division Senior Supt Garvin Henry said while reprisal attackers are expected, his officers have already implemented measures to mitigate against such incidents.
“This heinous crime, which took the lives of four of our citizens and left eight others wounded, will not be tolerated. I am taking it personally. This is a wanton act,” Henry said.
He said the incident came as a surprise as a reduction in violent crime had been recently noted in the community.
“The area has been quiet for a while. It is not only sad but unexpected that this level of violence is directed at this community,” he said.
“We understand that members of the community may be a bit shy talking to police officers because we know the times we are living in. We would like to implore the community to come out and talk. We are not afraid. Come and see me in my office if you need to,” Henry said.
He said his division will conduct outreach programmes in the community and implement anti-crime measures in the coming weeks.
“A lot of focus needs to be on younger persons in these communities to direct them away from gangs . . . It is important to collaborate with them,” he said.