PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad--With the murder on Monday of 14-year-old high school student, Joshua Andrews, the murder count in Trinidad and Tobago for 2018 already stands at 21.
Andrews was shot and killed in an apparent ambush while he sat inside a taxicab. The driver, Devon Hernandez, was also shot and killed in the same ambush. Two other occupants of the vehicle, both also students at Morvant Laventille Secondary School and friends of Andrews, were also wounded in the vicious and brutal attack.
Police reports state that the vehicle was riddled with bullets, which hit the petrol tank and the vehicle burst into flames trapping the occupants in the vehicle until help arrived.
Cabinet Ministers and other officials visited the school and met with students who were shocked and stunned at the loss of their friend, the Trinidad Express reported.
However, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s Government apparently has no answers to the sky-high murder rate in Trinidad.
Trinidad, an oil and resource rich country, touted as one of the most prosperous in the Caribbean, has been bloodied due to the paradox of having wealthy returns from oil revenues but being incapable of dealing with the large scale crime-wave that is taking lives of the innocents, like Joshua Andrews, and putting others in fear of loss of life and limb.
The murder count in Trinidad, as reported by the website
TTCrime.com recorded 494 murders for 2017; 463 in 2016; and 410 in 2015, which clearly indicate stark increases over the three previous years.
The murder rate per capita in Trinidad, reported by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is 31 per 100,000 persons and stood at 11th in the world and sixth in the Caribbean.
Without question, the spectre of death looms over Trinidad and Tobago. Observers point to the recent increase in gang related activity in Trinidad as the root cause of a significant portion of these murders. ~ Caribbean News Now! ~
