Homicide detectives are investigating three more killings across the country, including one brazen attack in the heart of Port-of-Spain. In the most recent incident, police said residents of the Observatory Street Plannings heard loud gunshots around 12.30 pm. When they investigated they found 32-year-old Rene La Fleur, of Waterhole, Cocorite, dead on the sidewalk.
La Fleur, police said, may have recently been released from the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, as his hand appeared to have been recently bandaged. Residents who gathered to see the body said they could not identify him, prompting police to believe he was not from the area. In the other incident on Tuesday, police said Simba La Roche, 32, was driving his car along Independence Square, near Duncan Street, around 9.30 pm, when a gunman in another vehicle pulled up alongside and shot him.
La Roche was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. About an hour later, police said Dennis St Cyr, 45, was at his Mohammed Street Extension, St Augustine, home when a gunman entered around 11.30 pm and killed him as he slept. Relatives of both men did not want to be identified when approached by the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday.
La Roche’s relatives said the father of one was a “limer” who was very close to his family, jovial and loved playing football. Relatives of St Cyr said he was killed for confronting two youths who stole $800 from him on Wednesday morning.
They said St Cyr, who runs a parlour, had the money in his pants pocket when two “youth men” came in and left. When St Cyr checked he found the money missing. The men’s relatives repaid the money after St Cyr complained to them, relatives said, but the thieves promised to kill him. “They (young men) take it to another level and they end up bringing a gunman and hit him five. The gunman come and kick down the door, shoot the man in front his children and wife,” St Cyr’s relatives said.
Relatives said St Cyr loved his five children and apart from running his parlour also ran fibre optic cables for several companies. “This is a real evil, boy. It hurting me,” a childhood friend of St Cyr said. “We have to get justice for him. You can't kill a man for he own thing, allyuh wrong. Allyuh take the man money and then threaten to kill him and then actually do it? Why boss?” the friend added. These latest killings pushed the toll to 388 for the year.
