Despite National Security Minister Gary Griffith’s decision to place the law enforcement agencies on high alert, the criminal element’s attack on law-abiding citizens continued unabated across T&T yesterday. Most of their crimes were committed with guns as three people were murdered, taking the toll to 14 for the year, a toddler and two women were shot and a security guard shot a bandit dead after he and an accomplice had committed a brazen daylight robbery at a roti shop in Barataria.
In the latest incident, 18-month-old Imani George is today fighting for his life in hospital after he was shot in his mother’s arms in a mid-afternoon shooting in east Port-of-Spain yesterday. According to reports, around 2.45 pm, Lichel Francois, 29, of Trou Macaque Road, Laventille, and her son, Imani George, were seated in a taxi near the corner of Prince and Nelson Streets, Port-of-Spain.
As the driver was awaiting other passengers, a heavily-tinted car with five men inside stopped alongside the passenger side of the taxi. One of the men then lowered the window, pointed a gun through it and fired several shots at the taxi. The men then drove off. Francois was shot in her left hand while George was struck in his head. The taxi driver, who was not identified by police, escaped unscathed.
The driver drove to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where Francois and her son were stabilised and then transfered, via ambulance, to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope. Francois’ non-life threatening injury was treated but she was warded overnight for observation.
However, George remains warded in a critical condition at the Wendy Fitzwilliam Pediatric Hospital. Doctors were said to be closely monitoring the toddler’s condition due to his age and the location of the wound.
Residents scared
Police have not established a motive for the shooting but are working on two preliminary theories: That the taxi driver may have been the intended target or that the gunmen mistook Francois for someone else. The shooting caused instant pandemonium with pedestrians seeking refuge inside nearby businesses. When a T&T Guardian team visited the area within half-an-hour of the shooting, the crime scene was cordoned off by heavily-armed police and crime scene investigators who were retrieving spent shells.
Several limers at a bar on Prince Street said they heard the gunshots but refused to comment on the shooting. “I don’t really want to say anything right now. I don’t live too far from here and you know how the situation is right now,” one man said. His response was echoed by commuters waiting at the Laventille taxi stand, as well as patrons of a shop metres away from the shooting.
Woman in stalled car shot
Francois was the second woman shot in east Port-of-Spain in less than 24 hours. Around 8 pm on Monday, Murlesha Majid, 32, of San Francique, was travelling home with her friend, Rajpath Balgobin, when he stopped along the shoulder of the Beetham Highway to check on a mechanical problem with the car. Before he could get out they heard several gunshots, one of which hit Majid on her left arm. Balgobin contacted police as he drove Majid to the hospital.
Although police responded within minutes and searched the area where the shooting took place, no one was arrested. Majid remained warded in a stable condition at hospital up to late yesterday.
Insp Etienne and Sgt Spence of the Besson Street Police Station are continuing investigations into both incidents.