A Bel­mont man was killed dur­ing a dri­ve-by shoot­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, while his girl­friend was in­jured and re­mained hos­pi­talised up to last night.

Po­lice said Joel King, 33, of Rigs­by Street, Gon­za­les, Bel­mont, died in the back seat of the sil­ver Nis­san Syl­phy, which crashed in­to a pole as it mount­ed the pave­ment at the cor­ner of Dun­can and Prince Streets.

The mur­der, which oc­curred around 3 pm, sent school­child­ren, the el­der­ly, and oth­ers scam­per­ing to safe­ty as gun­fire rang out. The in­ci­dent, which took place feet away from the Dun­can Street Po­lice Post, saw of­fi­cers from the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF) rush­ing to the aid of the vic­tims as they cau­tioned peo­ple to stay off the road. The of­fi­cers as­sist­ed the in­jured woman by rush­ing her to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where she un­der­went emer­gency treat­ment for gun­shot wounds to the back of the head and right waist. She re­mained in a sta­ble con­di­tion up to last night. King died at the scene.

Po­lice were al­so prob­ing two oth­er mur­ders from Tues­day evening. Of­fi­cers said around 6 pm, a man was found shot dead at Fos­ter Queve­do Block 8, Laven­tille. He was shot in the head and about the body. Thir­ty min­utes lat­er, around 6:30 pm, Richard Ray­mond, 21, of La Re­source, East Dry Riv­er, was shot dead at Hillview Ter­race in Laven­tille.

-with re­port­ing by Rhon­dor Dowlat