Mur­ders in Ari­ma and Bel­mont be­tween Sun­day af­ter­noon and yes­ter­day morn­ing have pushed the mur­der toll to 533.

In the first in­ci­dent, busi­ness­man El­liot "Lap" Chance was gunned down in the Play Whe booth at­tached to his mi­ni-mart on Tumpuna Road, Ari­ma.

A rel­a­tive re­port­ed hear­ing gun­shots around 6.35 pm and on check­ing saw Chance bleed­ing from a gun­shot wound un­der his chin.

Po­lice from the North­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force vis­it­ed the scene with a dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer who de­clared Chance dead.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found a bul­let hole in the glass pane of the Play Whe booth.

At Chance’s home on Mon­day morn­ing but rel­a­tives de­clined to com­ment. An­oth­er group of rel­a­tives were ap­proached at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, al­so de­clined to speak.

A res­i­dent who asked not to be named said he vis­it­ed Chance’s mi­ni-mart short­ly be­fore the shoot­ing.

“I asked a rel­a­tive how long ago this hap­pened and she said about half an hour af­ter I left. I might have been in the same store… the gun­man might have met me in­side the store!”

An­oth­er res­i­dent said he re­mem­bered Chance as a qui­et per­son who kept to him­self. He said he could not imag­ine why any­one would want to harm him as he did not know him to be in­volved in any­thing il­le­gal.

Res­i­dents said while there were re­ports of rob­beries and break-ins on parts of Tumpuna Road, vi­o­lent crimes were not com­mon in the area.

Po­lice said Chance was not known to them and they did not have a mo­tive for the mur­der, but not­ed that it did not seem to be a rob­bery.

Of­fi­cers from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion II are ex­pect­ed to view se­cu­ri­ty cam­era footage from the neigh­bour­hood as part of their en­quiries.

Hours af­ter that in­ci­dent, 23-year-old Jabari Ro­driguez was gunned down.

Po­lice said Ro­driguez was at his home on Ser­raneau Road, Bel­mont, around 3.30 am when gun­men stormed the house and shot him as he lay on his bed.

Neigh­bours heard the gun­shots and on check­ing found Ro­driguez bleed­ing from gun­shot wounds.

Po­lice from the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), Port-of-Spain Task Force and the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion vis­it­ed the scene with a dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer who de­clared Ro­driguez dead. Of­fi­cers from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion I are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.