Laventille man ambushed, shot dead

POLICE are continuing investigations into Tuesday night’s shooting death of a 20-year-old man, who was ambushed by three men when he left his home to go to Quarry Street, Laventille to get a phone card.
At 7.50 p.m., the police received a report about shots being fired at Quarry Street. A team of officers, led by Cpl Mohammed of the Port of Spain Division Task Force, sped to the scene, where they found the body of Triston Caesar.
According to his relatives, he worked at a fast food restaurant on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook and lived with them at their Lastique Street, East Dry River home.
Police said they were told that three men walked up to Caesar, stuffed a bandanna into his mouth and shot him several times about the body. He died on the scene.
Officers from the Crime Scene Unit as well as the Homicide Bureau conducted investigations.
His body was removed to the Port of Spain Mortuary and then yesterday morning to the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
Reporters spoke to his step-father Clyde Babb, who denied that the young man may have done something which led to his death.

WHERE MOMMY AND DADDY

ARTIE RAMKHELEWAN, the three-year-old girl who survived having her throat slit by her own father on Sunday, yesterday kept asking nurses attending to her at the San Fernando General Hospital, for her mother and father.

“She kept asking, ‘where my mommy and daddy?’ to the nurses who were monitoring her,” said a source at the hospital.

The source added that Artie is still in a serious but stable condition and because of the severity of her injuries, she would remain at hospital for a few more days. Apart from having her throat slit, little Artie was stabbed in the chest and arms. She is being monitored closely around the clock by doctors and nurses.

The girl was found in the backseat of the family car at Penal, bleeding and lying next to the cold body of her 26-year-old mother Aarika Bhim. Artie’s father Premnath Ramkhelawan, 25, committed suicide by hanging himself. His body was found at the back of the family Laltoo Trace, Penal home.

The mother, father and their young daughter were last seen alive at the wedding of a relative in Julien’s Village, Princes Town on Sunday night. Investigators believe that Ramkhelawan first stabbed to death his common-law year wife of five years before stabbing his daughter and slitting her throat.

BLOODY MURDER IN PENAL

A two-year-old girl who was stabbed multiple times and her throat slit was still wrapped in her murdered mother's arms when help arrived yesterday.

The mother and daughter were stabbed repeatedly, their throats slit, and left to die in the back seat of a car parked in a bushy track near their home at Laltoo Trace, Penal.

The child was discovered by her grandfather, Puranand Bhim. She was taken to the Siparia Health Centre and transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital in serious condition

TWO YEAR OLD SHOOT AT HOME

A two-year-old is now dead after she was killed at her Patna Village, Diego Martin, home this morning.

Reports are that Keira Singh was killed when gunmen stormed her parent's home around 1 am.
Keira, her father Keiron Paul, 25,and her mother were asleep at the time.
The toddler's father was reportedly the intended target but when the gunmen opened fire on the sleeping family, little Keira was hit in the stomach instead.

TRINIDAD WOMAN STRANGLED IN BARBADOS

TRINIDADIAN Marcelle Ragbir-Smith, 75, mysteriously disappeared on Monday October 12, from Farm Road, St George in Barbados where she was last seen between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm driving a silver Toyota Yaris car. Her body was found three weeks later, with an autopsy confirming not only her identity, but that she had been murdered strangled. A suspect has been arrested and charged for her killing.

When Ragbir-Smith first went missing, her three adult children who all reside abroad, immediately swung into action and two of them Tanya and Roger flew to Barbados assisting the police force there in leaving no stone unturned in the search for their beloved mother. Tanya, who arrived from London where she resides, told Barbados Today, “It’s been very hard because we don’t live in the country so myself and my brother have just arrived here so we’re just trying to focus on what we can do to get information to locate her. She’s my mother, she’s happy, she’s wonderful.

She’s missing and we want to find her,” A breakthrough in the case came when on October 18 Loop News reported that “Marcelle Smith’s car was found today. The silver Toyota Yaris with registration number P2346, was located in the Charleston Park/Charleston Garden area, in Culloden St Michael, even though she was not found.”On October 22, still full of hope, the family appealed through Loop News for the safe return of their loved one and issued a statement saying: “She is a strong, formidable woman. Our father is unwell and he is fully dependent on her. She has been missing since last Monday night.

MAN SHOT IN BOTH LEGS AND THROAT SLIT

ADIM MAYHEW died an agonising and gruesome death.

The 30-year-old man of Thomas Street, Port-of-Spain was found by his father Franklyn on Thursday night along Basilon Street in the capital — barely alive — shot in both legs and with his throat slit from ear to ear.

The grieving man yesterday told Newsday that had persons acted when his son was attacked, he might have survived. However he died shortly after being brought to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.

Speaking with reporters at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, Mayhew said he was returning home from a trip to Tobago when he was told that his son was lying in a drain on Basilon Street.

“A woman told me he was in the drain bleeding away,” Mayhew said. “I asked if she was joking and she said ‘no...go and see’.

I just turned around and went down the road. I saw him lying on the ground, alive, but gasping for breath. When I came closer, I saw a big chop wound or a slit to his throat and my boy’s throat was sliced open. The wound was gaping,” he cried.

Using his previous experience as an employee in the Accident and Emergency Department of the city hospital, Mayhew tried his best to staunch the bleeding from the slit in his son’s throat while at the same time trying to contact the emergency services.

Man killed outside Copa nightclub in POS

A 27-year-old man was murdered outside a night club in Port of Spain while two other men were injured this morning.

According to reports, around 4am, Tareek Keron George, Daniel Dottin and David Adams were leaving Copacabana Night Club on Dundonald Street when four gunmen approached the group and opened fire.

George died on the scene whilst Adams and Dottin were taken to hospital where they were treated for gunshot wounds about the body.

COPS PROBE 2 MORE MUDERS

TWO murders in separate incidents in south and central Trinidad have pushed the murder toll to 359. The victims, Cyrus Cooper, 30, of Lengua Road, Princes Town and Jameel “Bones” Boyce, 27, of School Lane, Enterprise in Chaguanas were both shot dead. The killings occurred on Friday night and midday yesterday.

According to police reports the first killing occurred at about 11.15 pm on Friday. Reports are that Cooper was driving his vehicle a short distance from his home when a grey Nissan Tiida car pulled alongside him. Two occupants alighted from the vehicle and started shooting at Cooper. As a result, Coopers’ vehicle veered off the roadway and crashed into a bushy area.

The gunmen got out of their car and fired several more shots into Cooper as he lay inside his crashed car. The killers then got back into their vehicle and drove off. Cooper was rushed to the Princes Town District Health Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival, having been shot multiple times. When Sunday Newsday visited the family home, relatives were in a state of shock yesterday.

A relative told Newsday she believes Cooper’s killing was linked to the 2012 killing of his brother Marcus Cooper of Mandingo Road, Indian Walk who was shot dead on New Year’s night.

Man shot to death in Point Cumana

At about 9pm yesterday, residents of McKenzie Street, Point Cumana, heard several loud explosions and upon investigating they found the body of Selby Peters lying in the driveway of his home.

He was bleeding from multiple gunshot injuries about the body.

The police and emergency health services were notified and a team of officers from the Carenage Police Station and the Western Division Task Force responded.

However, by the time of their arrival Peters was dead.

Crime scene investigators from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations also visited and processed the scene and several spent shells were recovered.

Prison officer gunned down in broad daylight

A prison officer has been murdered in broad daylight.

Police say Prisons Superintendent David Millet was shot and killed in his car around 8.30 am today at Cipriani Avenue; near his Upper 9th Avenue, Second Caledonia home.
Millet was 50 years old.
No motive has been established for the killing.
North Eastern Division police are still at the scene collecting evidence.
Meanwhile, three prison officers were stabbed at the Maximum Security Prison around 11 pm yesterday.
 

Soldier ......father of four murdered

According to police on Friday night Charleau and a 23-year-old woman from Morvant were having a discussion on Fort George Road, St James, near his vehicle.

As they approached the vehicle to leave at about 9 pm, a gunman wearing a hoodie emerged from some nearby bushes and told them to lie on the ground.

The gunman demanded their valuables but, at that time, it is believed Charleau reached for his licensed firearm, causing the gunman to shoot Charleau in the head. The gunman then took Charleau’s firearm and ammunition, and continued to search the vehicle while asking the woman for money. He fled the scene on foot and the woman ran to a nearby home where she contacted the
police.
Charleau was rushed to St James Hospital where an attempt was made to stabilise him. He was then transferred to the Port of- Spain General Hospital where he died at about 1 am yesterday while undergoing emergency surgery.

2 murders in city, push toll to 358

TWO men were murdered in 14separate incidents on Thursday 14night in downtown Port-of-Spain 14and East Dry River, hours apart. In 14the first incident, commuters were 14forced to flee shortly after 7 pm 14on Thursday as gunmen opened 14fire on a man while he was walking 14along George Street in Port-of- 14Spain. The victim was later identified 14as Nicholas Allen aka “Boy 14Boy.” According to Police reports, 14Allen was walking along George 14Street in the vicinity of the Housing 14Development Corporation building, 14on South Quay, when he was 14approached by a group of men.

One of the men who was armed 14with a gun fired five shots in the direction 14of Allen striking him about 14the body. A group of men were later 14seen running from the area. Allen 14was then observed lying on his 14back in the middle of the roadway.

A history of beheadings in T&T

Beheadings in T&T      

 

 

We took a look back at some of the most high profile discoveries of this kind, including the country's most widely publicised and memorable beheading - that of Thackoor Boodram, the brother of Dole Chadee, in 1997.

 

Michael Derrick Piper, 50. His head was found on Nelson Street on September 9, 2013. His body was later found in an empty lot. Police said, despite Piper’s criminal history, his death may have been a case of being in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”

 

Learie Ceballo, 33. His head was found on a table outside Step Restaurant and Bar in Rambert Village on February 21, 2013. His body was found hours later off the Hermitage Village agricultural road. Ceballo had been released from prison a week before. Police believe the murder may have been drug-related, and that it may have been a ‘hit’ ordered from within prison.

 

Shinelle Nelson, 21. Nelson’s body, minus her head, arms and feet, was found floating in the Guyamare River on February 13, 2013. Nelson last known whereabouts before her body was found was at the Trini Posse fete in Chaguaramas, the Saturday night before her corpse was discovered.

 

Ramjesh Ramdeo, 27. Ramdeo was found on September 1, 2012 with his head decapitated in Moruga, where he lived.

 

Unidentified woman. The charred remains of a woman were found on December 27, 2011 at Dookhan Trace, Aranguez.

Dianne Williams, 37 and Shaquille Morgan, 8. The headless bodies of mother and son were found stuffed into a garbage bag at the Forres Park landfill in Claxton Bay on July 21, 2010. Three days later, their heads were found buried behind a house in Ste Madeleine

 

Dr. Edward Koury, 38. Koury, the nephew-in-law of then Minister of Health John Rahael was attacked and kidnapped at his business place on September 21, 2005, and his headless body was found two days later in an orange field near Caparo.

 

Lancancious John, 27. John’s nude, headless body was found in Sumaria Trace, Charlieville in September, 2004. The body also bore gunshot wounds to the chest.

 

Ursula Innis, 65. In September, 1999, Innis’ headless body was found in a bath tub in her Siparia home. Her head was found in a plastic bag in a nearby water tank. Her husband was found dead under another tank behind the home.

 

Thackoor Boodram, 41. In arguably the country’s most famous beheading, Boodram’s head was found inside a whisky box at the Caroni cremation site on December 31, 1997.

 

BREAKING: Headless body identified

 

                             

 

The severed head and decapitated body found in two separate locations yesterday, have been identified as that of Nathan Maraj, 35.

Maraj's head was found in a bin at the corner of Pall Mall Street and Quarry Street yesterday morning by workers of the Port of Spain City Corporation.
His body was later found in the trunk of a car parked next to the Super Hardware Store located at the corners of Prince and Duncan Streets.
Maraj was the last of 8 children.
Family members are currently said to be at the Forensic Sciences Centre. They are reportedly in a state of shock, and say they do not know why anyone would want Maraj dead.
The autopsy on Maraj's body confirms he was stabbed to death before he was beheaded.


 

Police: Beheading has no Central-American link

There is, so far, no connection between Central-American “activities” and yesterday’s discovery of a human head at Quarry Street, East Dry River.

Garbage collectors yesterday stumbled upon the head around 6 am, while clearing refuse from a dumpster.

A headless body was later found in the trunk of a car parked along Duncan Street, Port-of-Spain.

Responding to a question at yesterday’s weekly Police Media Briefing regarding the discovery of the head, Acting Assistant Superintendent Police Public Information Officer Michael Pierre said investigators had not received any information to indicate such a connection.

“At this time an investigation is being done and as soon as the information is unearthed, of course, the members of the media will be informed.”

Asked whether police noted a similarity in yesterday’s beheading with those seen in Colombia, Pierre repeated that police had no evidence to indicate any such similarity.

Investigators have said that they believe the decapitated head and body belong to a Las Lomas man, known to be associated with several narcotic trades in the community and the Port-of-Spain district.

"HEADLESS HORROR"

 

RESIDENTS IN SHOCK: 'This is what we come to? This is madness. You chop a man head off and then leave it there in the rubbish?'

WHAT A SIGHT: A crime scene officer looks with horror at the severed head of a man found on Quarry Street, Port of Spain, yesterday. –Photo: KERWIN PIERRE

Curious: A police officer stands guard as East Port of Spain residents look on following the discovery of a decapitated body in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle on Duncan Street yesterday. —Photos: KERWIN PIERRE

 

“This is a house of horrors.”
This was how one police officer described the discovery of a head and decapitated body in Port of Spain yesterday.
And residents of Duncan and Quarry Streets, where the head and body were found separately, were equally horrified about the killing when the Express visited both scenes yesterday.
“This is what we come to? This is madness. You chop a man head off and then leave it there in the rubbish? What kind of monsters we have living in this country now?” asked Margaret Jacob from Quarry Street.

 

Police find headless body on Prince Street

Police are currently on the scene of a decapitated body at the corner of Prince Street and Duncan Street, Port of Spain.

The body is believed to belong to the head, which was discovered this morning on Quarry Street, Laventille. 

The body was discovered in the trunk of a vehicle shortly after midday today, near the Super Hardware store. 

The head was discovered after 5am this morning by sanitation workers attacked to the Port of Spain City Corporation. 

Prior to the discovery of the body, police officers had gone to the Beetham landfill in search of the rest of the body. 

Police search for two suspects in homeless man's killing

Police are searching for two men in connection with the murder of a homeless man last Sunday.

The two men – one armed with a piece of wood and the other with a bottle - allegedly beat Marlon Davis and left him for dead.
Officers are being assisted by a man who claims he was a driver for Davis’ assailants.
Davis was beaten around 2.45 am on Sunday at Southern Main Road, Marabella.
Emergency health services and paramedics were contacted soon after the attack.
However, Davis succumbed to his injuries from the assault and died while being taken to hospital, but not before giving paramedics information on the men who beat him.
Acting on that information, police detained a Golconda man just hours after Davis’ murder.
He told police he drove the suspects there, but he did not know them or their addresses.
Police say the man claims that when they arrived in Marabella, the men got out of the car and beat Davis; then returned to the car and he sped off.

BLOODY MURDER

Bloody murder

Bloody. When you see something bloody, it makes your own blood crawl.

The dictionary meaning of “bloody” is “running, oozing with blood.” Shooting is bad but it takes a degenerated mind to slash a throat, chop up someone to death while the victim is screaming and begging.

And if this slashing and chopping happen on several different occasions within a short period, and if the demographic and social background of the victims look similar, well, you could start developing a theory for forensic investigation — Intelligent policing.

TEEN SHOT

Diego teen shot Dead

A 19-YEAR-OLD Diego Martin man has been shot dead. The teen, police said, was gunned down near his Quarry Street home early yesterday morning.

Richard Hercules, 19, was liming with friends outside his home shortly after midnight yesterday, when loud explosions were heard.

Residents in the area rushed Hercules to the St James Medical Complex where he succumbed to his wounds at about 4 am. Yesterday, at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, relatives told reporters that they are baffled as to who would want to kill him, or why.

“I don’t know him to be in anything,” said the teen’s father, Richard Snr, “He never complained and said anybody did anything to him. He was just a limer.” The elder Hercules told reporters that the junior worked as a security guard, however he had moved from firm to firm. Hercules said he did not find out about his son’s death until he arrived at work yesterday morning.

“It is really hard on me, his mother and his sister,” said Hercules.

“He was never involved in any gang activity. He was a little miserable when he was younger, but he grew out of it. He didn’t deserve to die like this. The most I can say is that I leave all of this in God’s hands, I know that he called my son home, and he is now in a better place.” Police officers have not determined