Tragic start to the New Year in Trinidad and Bahamas
By Caribbean News Now contributor
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Trinidad and Tobago recorded six murders on the first day of the year on Wednesday, while in The Bahamas four people were murdered as 2013 ended and the New Year began.
Pastor Casimir Khan was the first killing to be recorded in Trinidad for the year. He was gunned down around 2am New Year’s morning, shortly after holding a church service at his home in Arima. His son, 19-year-old Ezra Khan, was also hit in the face with a bullet.
The second killing occurred in Tobago with the stabbing death of 54-year-old Curtis Lovelace. Police are questioning a suspect in connection with this murder.
Then 31-year-old Francis Bernard was shot and killed around 8:30 Wednesday morning. Police say Bernard was released from prison recently after being incarcerated for one year.
A mentally challenged man, Leroy Haynes, 65, was beaten by a 25-year-old man who later torched the body on Wednesday morning. A suspect has been arrested by the police.
And a double murder brought the toll to six murders for the year so far.
Officers of the Southern Division Task Force found the body of a man identified as Omadath Deokie-Nanan, who had multiple chop wounds to his body. Police say they received word that the man may have been in the company of his wife.
Following searches, at around 6.30 Thursday morning, the body of the woman, Sharon Bahadur, was found lying face-down in the bushes, in close proximity to the house where the man’s body was found.
Police have initiated a manhunt for two men of East Indian descent who are considered to be suspects in the double murder.
Another, as yet unidentified body of a man was found on Thursday floating face down in a river. According to police, he appeared to have marks of violence about his body and two concrete blocks were tied to his legs.
The latest discovery brought the murder count in Trinidad and Tobago to seven in two days.
Meanwhile, in The Bahamas, two men were killed on New Year’s Eve in separate incidents and two were killed on Wednesday.
On Monday, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government would make available more resources to the police to fight crime.
In addition to the recent murders, police also reported that a man was shot several times around 6:15 pm on Tuesday. He was listed in serious condition in hospital on Wednesday. Police also said the occupants of a white Honda car shot a man around 4:30 am on Wednesday.
The man was shot in the leg and abdomen and was listed in serious condition in hospital.
Sources: Nassau Guardian and WACK Radio
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Related story:
Girl, six, raped and murdered before being stuffed in a plastic bag in case which has sparked outrage in Trinidad
By Lizzie Edmonds daily Mail UK
Keyana Cumberbatch went missing on Monday on way home from school
Police discovered her body in a barrel in her family’s apartment on Friday
Male relative, who was walking her home, arrested but not yet charged
Calls for better child protection laws following horrific crime
A 6-year-old girl was raped and murdered before she was stuffed in a plastic bag and left in a barrel, police in Trinidad have confirmed.
Keyana Cumberbatch, a pupil of St Barbara’s Shouter Baptist Primary School, went missing around 5.20pm on Monday.
She was on her way to her grandmother’s apartment, located just metres away from where she lived in Maloney, Port of Spain.
The child was being looked after by a male relative prior to her disappearance, local media has reported.
Keyana’s mother, Simone Williams, 27, said she was only made aware of her daughter’s disappearance after she made a call to her mother – who said the child never showed up at her apartment.
She was discovered in a barrel located in her family’s apartment in Maloney on Friday, according to Stabroek News.
Residents who smelt the decay called police who made the discovery, the website adds.
An autopsy revealed that the girl died of massive trauma to the head.
Pathologist Dr Alexandrov said, ‘The trauma to her skull was so extensive that all the tissue which connect bones of the skull were open. Her skull actually was cracked in half.
‘These kinds of fractures we call “hinge fractures”. We see it very often in motor vehicle accidents where significant forces are applied.’
The male relative was taken into custody on Tuesday afternoon and was interrogated by officers. He has not been charged.
He says he knew nothing of the girl’s disappearance.
He told officers he walked Keyana to the building where her grandmother’s apartment was located and saw her enter the building, it has been reported.
Residents of Maloney, where the girl lived, are said to be hugely distressed and shocked at the news.
Many are now calling for better child protections following the horrific crime.
Gender, Youth and Child Development Minister Clifton De Couteau told reporters that legislators would soon debate a bill that would create a national child registry and punish people who fail to report crimes against children.
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