An­na Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Hours af­ter a Mor­vant man was shot by un­known as­sailants while stand­ing out­side his home, se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials said mo­bile pa­trols had been in­creased in the Port-of-Spain and Mor­vant dis­tricts.

The di­rec­tive fol­lowed the shoot­ing of Frankie “Fishie” Bartholomew, who re­mained ward­ed in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion at hos­pi­tal up to yes­ter­day.

Bartholomew, 44, was in­jured dur­ing an in­ci­dent on Thurs­day.

Re­ports in­di­cate the vic­tim, who is well known to the po­lice, was stand­ing out­side his home around 9 pm when gun­shots rang out.

Up­on check­ing, res­i­dents found Bartholomew bleed­ing from gun­shot wounds to the chest, hands and legs.

They rushed him to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he was treat­ed and ward­ed.

Po­lice of­fi­cers have ap­pealed to the pub­lic for any in­for­ma­tion that could as­sist with this in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Bartholomew was shot hours af­ter Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der pub­licly iden­ti­fied him as one of sev­er­al in­di­vid­u­als al­leged­ly linked to es­ca­lat­ing gang con­flict in the Mor­vant dis­trict.

Bartholomew is well known to law en­force­ment.

In De­cem­ber 2024, he was ac­quit­ted for a sec­ond time in the 2009 mur­der of Mar­cus Mark af­ter the High Court ruled that the pros­e­cu­tion had failed to prove its case be­yond a rea­son­able doubt.

He al­so sur­vived an ap­par­ent at­tack while on re­mand at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in 2023.

Nam­ing sev­er­al per­sons in­clud­ing Bartholomew, Alexan­der claimed the group had re­ject­ed peace ini­tia­tives and were con­tin­u­ing to fu­el gang vi­o­lence.

Re­cent killings in the Mor­vant dis­trict led Alexan­der to warn per­sons about en­gag­ing in il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties.

Parts World em­ploy­ee Shaquille Charles of Mon Re­pos Road, Mor­vant, was gunned down on Ju­ly 21, af­ter leav­ing work.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve Charles was the vic­tim of a reprisal at­tack linked to the triple mur­der at a gas sta­tion days be­fore.

Mikal “Bee­bo” Camp­bell, Khalil Williams and Selvon Jack were killed dur­ing a mass shoot­ing at the Unipet Gas Sta­tion at the cor­ner of Mor­vant Old Road and the East­ern Main Road, Laven­tille, on Ju­ly 18.