Six more shot dead
JANELLE DE SOUZA and LAUREL WILLIAMS Sunday, January 24 2016
Six more people became victims of murder between Friday night and yesterday morning in separate shooting incidents throughout the country.
The first two murders occurred in Laventille on Friday night within an hour of each other.
At about 10 pm, Morsley Phillip, 81, of Sogrin Trace was in his bedroom resting when his wife asked him to fix the kitchen faucet which had just stopped working. As he was attempting to fix the faucet, gunshots were heard as bullets hit the front of the house, shattering several windows and leaving holes in the door and walls.
According to police, two men then kicked open the front door, entered the house and shot Phillip several times about the body. They then placed Phillip’s body on the couch, threw a Molotov cocktail on the couch, and ran out. After the men fled, Phillip’s wife extinguished the fire and contacted the police.
Police believe one of Phillip’s relatives was involved in gang activity, but would not say if the shooting was connected to the murders of the two Success Laventille students on Thursday.
A few minutes later, between 10.30 and 11 pm, residents of Clifton Hill, off St Paul Street, heard several loud explosions. The police were called and, on checking, found the body of a man of mixed descent, who appeared to be in his late 20s wearing a white vest, blue three-quarter jeans lying face down in the road. He remained unidentified up to press time. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Besson Street Police Station or the Homicide Bureau of Investigations.
The third victim was Stephen “Yankee†Furlonge, 45, who was shot and killed at about 11pm on Friday at his Vega De Oropouche Rd, Sangre Grande home, located in an abandoned quarry on Toco Main Road.
According to police, gunshots were heard by far off residents and the police were called. When they arrived at the site, they found Furlonge’s body about 300 feet from the house.
They believe Furlonge responded to calls at the front of his home and was shot several times as he opened his door. He then tried to run, but eventually collapsed as the murderers escaped in a waiting vehicle.
District Medical Officer Dr Nyedimna viewed the body which was removed to the Sangre Grande District Hospital Mortuary, and later to the Forensic Science Centre, St James for an autopsy today.
Police said Furlonge, originally from San Fernando, lived by himself in a small concrete structure on the property. They said the structure had no electricity and the area was “pitch black†when they arrived.
The officers who responded had to use the headlights of their vehicle to search the area.
The police added that the killers had to be familiar with the terrain in order to move around in the darkness, but police were hopeful of finding them as there were security cameras on the premises.
Also murdered was 28-year-old Richard “Mamoo†Soleyn, of Poinsettia Extension, Morvant.
At about 6 am yesterday, Soleyn was sleeping on the couch in the living room of the family’s home while his wife was sleeping with their three children in the bedroom. The “PH driver†heard a noise as three men broke in through the back window and ran into a back room where he hid himself under a pile of clothes, but he was quickly found.
Soleyn’s mother, Elizabeth Castillo, said people of the area often heard gunshots and knew not to go out of their houses when they were heard. As she usually did at those times, she called her son to make sure that everything was alright, but there was no response.
“I would like to know why. What did he do to deserve that? If anyone threatened him I would have known. He would have told me or his wife, but he never said anything like that,†she cried.
Castillo described her son as a loving person who worked hard to provide for his wife and his three sons — ages five, three, and one - who “adored†him. She was even more upset by the fact that all of the children saw their father’s bloodied, bullet-riddled body when they woke up from sleep.
The sixth murder occurred in Penal. Police detectives are investigating the killing of a Penal man who was shot and left to die on the roadside yesterday morning near a fruit and vegetable stall along the Penal Rock Road. Police identified the victim as Steve “Kunta†Stephens, 39. A police report stated that shortly before 8 am yesterday, police responded to a report of a shooting and went to Church Street, off Latchoo’s Road, Penal.
They saw the body of Stephens lying on the roadside. It bore gunshot wounds and police immediately rushed Stephens to the Siparia District Health Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police said that Stephens lived in the vicinity where his body was found.
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