Police probing drug link in triple murder at Icacos beach

Senior Reporter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Horror struck a Cedros fishing community as gunmen opened fire along the beachfront at Icacos Point, killing three men and injuring three Venezuelan migrants in a suspected drug-related hit early yesterday.

Police identified the victims as fishermen Kareem Celestine, 36, of Icacos Village, Cedros; Joshua Sadoo, 21, of Fanny Village, Point Fortin; and an unidentified man whom residents referred to as Darko.

The migrants, a 15-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman, suffered gunshots to their legs but were in stable condition, and 45-year-old man suffered gunshot injuries to his leg and was in critical condition.

Officers from the Cedros Police Station responded to the shooting and saw a white Nissan Sentra B-14 riddled with bullets and the driver’s door open on the beach. Inside, they found Sadoo’s body. They walked behind a shed and saw Celestine lying with several gunshots, including in the head. Next to him was another man, who was also shot in the head and about the body.

Residents alerted officers to screams nearby.

Under a shed, officers found three migrants suffering from gunshot injuries. A villager took them to the Point Fortin Hospital for emergency treatment.

Detectives from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations: Region III interviewed several people. Crime scene investigators retrieved 33 different bullet casings. The white Nissan Sentra B14 was taken for processing.

One of the surviving victims told investigators that at 2 am, they were home when a loud banging sound woke them up. Four masked gunmen confronted them and opened fire.

Celestine’s father, Paschal Celestine, said he woke up to the sound of gunshots from the beach and immediately called Celestine’s phone but got no answer. His anxiety rose when a friend called him, saying gunmen shot a group of people on the beach. He went to the beach and saw Sadoo dead in the car but his son was nowhere around. He later got a phone call which revealed Celestine and another man were found dead at the back of his shed.

Although the men stayed with Celestine, Paschal said he did not know them.

“I cannot say why this happened because I do not know what those fellows did. You know that talk spreads, and people say this and that. I cannot say what I do not know, but he did not have beef with anybody to say that he was doing somebody something or he took something from somebody,” Paschal said.

Paschal said Celestine was probably not the target but suffered because he was with the other men.

Celestine’s death left his son in tears after his grandparents told him what happened. The boy stood under their home silently as his grandparents brought Celestine’s belongings from the shed.

Residents said Sadoo and Darko began staying with Celestine about a month ago, when they brought their boats to the beach. They said the men had been drinking and liming before the gunmen attacked.

Witnesses told Guardian Media the gunmen came to the beach on boats and began shooting at the car where Sadoo sat. While they did not see the incident, they heard gunshots followed by the voices of local men ordering their victims to lie on the ground.

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