T&T: 4 killed in gang ambush

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Four people, including an innocent woman, were killed on Wednesday when they were ambushed by gang members along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in St Augustine.

According to police reports, the gunmen were targeting the local artiste known as Kashif “Kman 6ixx” Alexander when they launched a gun attack along the westbound lane of one of the country’s busiest highways. 

Police believe the attack was orchestrated after a picture of the entertainer and his entourage, showing them set to depart the airport in Barbados for Trinidad, was posted to social media less than one hour before.

Instead, the attackers killed cousins Damien Criss, 26, and Levi Criss, who was said to be in his mid-20s, along with Jerry Hollingsworth, 31.

Lana Sahadeo, 51, of Bassie Street, St Augustine, was also killed after being hit by a bullet intended for one of the other victims. 

Investigators confirmed that Alexander’s flight landed at the Piarco International Airport at 1:40 p.m. and the group left there in a white wagon around 2:35 p.m. (local time).

The police say as the car stopped at the intersection at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, a black car pulled alongside and gunmen opened fire on the entertainer’s car.

After the car crashed, some of the passengers ran out and began running in various directions.

However, the gunmen got out of their vehicle and first pumped several bullets into the driver, who had been pinned behind the wheel, before pursuing the others.

The driver died at the scene.

The gunmen shot another of the man as he ran east along the highway- he later collapsed and died in the middle of the roadway.  

The third man was pursued and killed along Bassie Street.

The police believe Sahadeo may have been looking through the window of her second-storey house as the gunshots rang out, and was struck in the head by a stray bullet.

One of the two surviving members of the attack was said to be nursing an injury to the right shoulder, while Alexander escaped unharmed.

The deaths pushed the year’s murder toll to 567, compared to 598 for the corresponding period last year.

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