The Maracas/St Joseph leader of the Rasta City gang and one of his associates were killed yesterday in a daylight gun attack just outside the district’s police station.
The quiet community was startled by the sound of rapid gunfire as six gunmen, travelling in two vehicles, began shooting at gang leader Kerlan “Miceman” George and Shameel “Kazim” Ali.
A police officer, identified only as PC Lalchan, who was responding to the scene was grazed by a bullet and was later treated at hospital.
George, who also lived at La Seiva, Maraval, survived a gun attack last January near the St Joseph Community Centre. He was shot in the hand and his wife was shot in the face in that incident.
Ali was arrested in 2008 for possession of marijuana and fined $4,500.
Last night residents blocked roads as they protested the killing of the two men, resulting in traffic backed up for miles along the Maracas Royal Road.
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams last night condemned the shooting incident and gave the assurance that the assailants would be pursued and brought to justice.
There were reports last night of another double murder in Carapo, Arima. The bodies of two men were found slumped over each other in a car with gunshot wounds.
That incident, along with the Maracas/St Joseph double murder and that of a 62-year-old Arima man yesterday pushed the number of people killed for the year to 32.
The brazen attacks came less than 24 hours after the National Security Council met at a joint press conference hosted by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon and Williams.
At this conference,measures were announced to increase police and army patrols as well as efforts to catch and prosecute criminals.
.At the scene in St Joseph yesterday, police and regiment officers were overheard discussing the “madness” of the shooters to attack the two men just outside a police station.
One officers said they believed the attack was plotted outside the station because their targets would most likely have been unarmed.
Police reports are that George, 40, of Acono Road, Maracas/St Joseph, who was freed of the 2006 murder of Andrew “Bellies” John in 2011, and Ali, 27, of Aranguez, had just visited the station as part of George’s bail requirements to report four times a week for a gun related offence.
As they drove off in a Toyota Hilux, two vehicles, a black Mitsubishi Lancer and a white Nissan AD wagon, blocked their path.
Police said the men tried to wrestle George out of his car but he managed to speed off as the gunmen opened fire. The Hilux crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle causing it to flip over at the side of the road. The gunmen, police said, then opened fire on the two men.
Police engaged in a shoot-out with the gunmen but they managed to escape. A getaway car was later found abandoned at Herbal Trace, Maracas St Joseph. Police said the incident which lasted a few minutes occurred around 3.30 pm.
Residents, who initially thought there was an accident, pulled the two injured men out of the overturned vehicle and they were later taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where both were pronounced dead on arrival.
At the scene, relatives of the men were too distraught to speak. After the shooting, scores of police officers and soldiers arrived on the scene. Soldiers were expected to set up camp in the area last night.
The shooting was reminiscent of another brazen attack near the West End Police Station in 2009 when Camille Daniel, 39, the wife of a soldier was killed after she drove into the station’s compound.
Two armed men had jumped in her car and ordered her to drive but she turned into the station and was shot.