A 36-year-old man who was freed of mur­der six years ago was gunned down in Diego Mar­tin yes­ter­day, in what po­lice sus­pect to be a reprisal killing.

Po­lice said around mid­day, two men ran in­to the Apex Bar sec­onds af­ter Apol­los “Bal­lack” Alexan­der had stepped in­side and gunned him down.

Dur­ing the at­tack, a woman was shot in the ab­domen. She was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where she re­mains in sta­ble con­di­tion.

Alexan­der, orig­i­nal­ly from East Dry Riv­er, was liv­ing at Bagatelle Road, Diego Mar­tin.

Po­lice sus­pect Alexan­der was a ca­su­al­ty of the on­go­ing war be­tween two fac­tions of the Mus­lim gang in Port-of-Spain and Diego Mar­tin.

On May 3, Corey “Small Mouth” Ri­ley was killed around mid­day while cut­ting grass at the cor­ner of Achong Street and South Quay, Port-of-Spain. Po­lice said Ri­ley was killed be­cause he lived in Diego Mar­tin and was caught “in en­e­my ter­ri­to­ry”.

Alexan­der was freed of the mur­der of Kwame “But­ters” Ju­lian in 2018. Ju­lian was gunned down along Ob­ser­va­to­ry Street, Port-of-Spain, on Oc­to­ber 5, 2007, while speak­ing to a friend. He was ap­proached by a gun­man who shot him in the back of the head.

Alexan­der’s free­dom came af­ter three at­tempts to pros­e­cute him be­fore Jus­tices De­van Ram­per­sad, Mark Mo­hammed and Hay­den St Clair-Dou­glas in 2011, 2012 and 2014.