Two gunmen dressed in a white suits resembling those worn by crime scene investigators (CSI) walked into Ward 3 of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and pumped several bullets into a male patient as he lay in his hospital bed last night.
The dead man has been identified by police as a 25-year-old Dejean Broker from Hillview, Laventille.
The brazen killing, investigators told Guardian Media, occurred around 8.45 pm.
Eyewitnesses said nurses and patients scampered for cover when the gunmen casually walked up to his victim and opened fire.
One patient on the ward described the scene as chaotic: “I had to throw myself under the bed...there were about ten gunshots.”
The shaken patient said nurses were crying and other patients were also in tears.
The ward, located on the northern side of the hospital, accommodates male and female patients of different ages. It was moved there after the central block of the hospital was badly damaged by an earthquake in August last year.
Officers attached to the Port-of-Spain CID and Task Force, as well as officers from Homicide, responded within minutes of the killing.
Police say they are still trying to determine how the gunman was able to get into the ward after visiting hours. The visiting hours for the hospital are between 11 am and 1 pm and between 4 pm and 6 pm.
Senior police sources told Guardian Media that Broker had been admitted to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Monday with stab wounds from an incident in the Western Division. The assailants escaped on foot.
A release from the T&T Police Service (TTPS) late last night advised that there will be a continued police presence at the hospital for the next few days and that officers are “actively investigating the circumstances surrounding a shooting incident.”
“Investigations remain very active,” the release stated.
