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Homicide detectives and relatives of the four people who were involved in a shooting in D’Abadie on Wednesday night are still trying to work out the details surrounding the incident.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, relatives of the man and woman, who died in the incident, had no clue of the connection between their relatives and the other victims, or why they were at the location of the shooting.
According to reports, around 8 pm on Wednesday, Northern Division police responded to the scene of the shooting at Boys Lane, D’Abadie.
When they arrived on the scene, police found the four victims lying in and around a Nissan Tiida which had crashed into a wall at the side of the road.
The victims are 26-year-old Timmy “Hype” Ragopaul, 25-year-old Alika Scipio, 19-year-old Tremaine Paul and 15-year-old Karimah Abdullah.
Ragopaul, a PH taxi driver, from Seventh Avenue, Oropune Gardens, Piarco, and Scipio, an unemployed mother of one from Eastern Quarry, Laventille, were both pronounced dead on the scene, while Paul, of
Maloney Gardens, and Abdullah of Fonde Amandes Road, St Ann’s, were taken to hospital for treatment.
Paul, who was shot in his abdomen and leg, was taken to the Arima District Hospital where he remained warded in a stable condition up to late yesterday.
Abdullah, a student of the Success Laventille Secondary School, was shot in her head and chest and was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope. She remained warded in a critical condition up to late yesterday.
Investigators initially believed that they were ambushed while driving along the road but were said to be reconsidering the theory because of the positions they were found in.
Ragopaul was found lying next to his car with Paul on top of him. Scipio was found lying head-first in the back seat, while Abdullah was in the front passenger seat.
Residents only reported hearing a volley of gunshots and a loud crash before they came outside to find the four victims.
Detailed photographs and videos, captured before the wounded were taken to hospital, were posted on social media websites and instant messenger applications within minutes of the incident.
Police sources said that the area is known for gang and drug activity and has been the scene of several recent shootings and murders.
In a brief interview, Scipio’s mother, Wendy Ann said that when her daughter left home early on Wednesday morning she said she was going to St Helena and then to the beach with friends.
“I have no idea why she would be in that area,” Wendy Ann said.
She described her daughter as kind and loving but admitted that they had disagreements in the past over the friends she kept.
“I always had a problem with her friends and I spoke to her about it on many occasions. She would stop and then start back,” she said.
A group of Scipio’s friends, who were at the centre, denied that she was involved in any wrongdoing as they claimed that she lived for her seven-year-old daughter.
“She always studying she child. That is what hurting me today. She is a girl that use to go out there and work for she child. I don’t know her as any miserable girl or any bacchanalist,” the friend, who asked to remain unidentified, said.
Ragopaul’s mother Ghandai Chan claimed that she last saw her son around 2 pm when he left home to perform a private job.
“All I could tell you is that he get a hired job yesterday and I don’t know what went on after that. All we see is what was on Facebook,” Chan said.
Chan admitted that her son was rowdy when he was younger but he changed after his son was born, two years ago.
“In early times he use to get in some trouble but since his son was born he changed. I use to tell him you have to live for your son,” she said.
A news team from the T&T Guardian visited Abullah’s home yesterday afternoon but her relatives were not there. Neighbours said that they left early yesterday morning to visit her in the hospital and had not returned.
The incident raised the murder toll for the year to 331 as compared to 292 for the corresponding period, last year.
Detectives of the Region Two Homicide Bureau are continuing investigations.