kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Homicide investigators are trying to determine the motive behind a “hit” carried out on a Chinese businessman at his supermarket in Princes Town yesterday.
While the murder of Chen Zhi Zhong, 24, was being linked to the “Chinese mafia”, investigators last evening said they were yet to gather enough evidence to determine a motive.
A report stated that just after midday, Chen was sitting next to the cashier when his killer walked into the Karvill Supermarket Ltd along Manahambre Road yesterday and carried out the brazen attack.
The killer was barefooted and wore a black Nike Jumpman hoodie. He approached the cashier with a bottle of Minute Maid orange juice. CCTV footage showed the gunman wandering around the area, checking out the snack shelves near the cashier for several minutes as other customers shopped.
When the supermarket cleared up, the gunman spoke to Chen briefly before pulling out a gun and shooting him in his face. The gunman then ran out of the supermarket and entered a silver hatchback that was waiting for him a few buildings away.
Chen was taken to the Princes Town District Health Facility where he later died.
A team of Southern Division officers, including Sgt Ramroop, Sgt Williams and PC Ramcharan, were on the scene gathering information when the T&T Guardian arrived on the scene. Up to late yesterday, the suspect had not been found.
There was talk that a contract killer from Tarodale Gardens, Ste Madeleine, who is wanted by police in relation to several other murders in the Southern Division, was the suspect. However, investigators said they were still working to determine the killer’s identity.
Chen, a Chinese national, had been living in T&T for several years and opened the supermarket three year’s ago in a building that he rented from a Princes Town family.
His killing was one of two which occurred within hours of each other yesterday.
In the other incident, 21-year-old Tyesha De Sousa was stabbed to death by a man who chased her down in the heart of Port-of-Spain before killing her.
According to police reports, around 3.50 am, De Sousa of Trou Macaque, Laventille, was in a vehicle driven by a 31-year-old man along Charlotte Street, Port of Spain, near the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Police said the two reportedly got into a heated argument and the vehicle ran off the roadway and crashed into a wall. De Sousa reportedly ran out of the car and the driver, now armed with a knife, chased after her. The woman’s attacker eventually caught up to her and stabbed her several times. According to reports, a member of the T&T Defence Force who was nearby, went to De Sousa’s assistance and subdued her attacker. She was later taken to the nearby hospital The suspect was in custody last evening being interrogated by Homicide Bureau investigators.
