WITH eight days remaining in the year, the country is ten short of the 600 murder mark widely predicted to be reached and even surpassed, following the death of a man who was shot in a cemetery on Thursday.
A stray dog was also shot in that incident but survived.
Newsday was told that both police and relatives are baffled as to what 22-year-old Justin Glasgow was doing at the Streatham Lodge Cemetery in Tunapuna, in the first place, when he was gunned down on Thursday morning.
Police said they received a report of a shooting at the corner of Barath and Cemetery Street, Tunapuna, at around 11.40 am and went to the scene where they found Glasgow's body slumped over a three-foot high wall which ringed a shed in the cemetery.
Glasgow, police said, was shot in the head and back.
Tunapuna police and officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations (Region II) visited the scene along with the district medical officer who ordered Glasgow's body removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for autopsy.
Officers of the Special Evidence Recovery Unit (SERU) also visited the scene and found 18 spent shells and a beanie hat. The stray dog was also found nearby bleeding from gunshot wounds.
Police officers gently took up the animal and placed it in the tray of a marked police vehicle which then sped off. Officers said the canine was taken to the veterinary clinic in Mt Hope for treatment. Up to press time, the animal's condition was unknown.
Speaking with Newsday at the scene, a relative recalled the last conversation he had with Glasgow which was on Wednesday when the victim called and asked to borrow some money.
"He wanted a little money but I told him I working down south because I working on the road, and I told him I couldn't meet up with him. I said I would deal with that today and bam, his mother called me to tell me what happened" said the relative who asked not to be identified.
Asked about his thoughts on the crime situation and murder rate, the relative said, "I feel much better can be done by the authorities. Is like everyday murders taking place."
While SERU officers processed the scene and collected the spent shells, one of Glasgow's relatives sobbed loudly. This is not the first time a murder has taken place in a cemetery this year.
On October 29, brothers Nirmal Rambarran, 18, and Elvis Hernandez, 28, were gunned down at the same cemetery as Glasgow. A third man was shot in his leg.
Then on November 2, Maurice Sylvester Koon Koon, 51, was shot dead while lighting candles at the graves of his sons, Meakale and Dominic Koon Koon at the Tacarigua Cemetery on Crown Street, for All Saints Day. A seven-year-old boy was shot in his left foot during that attack.
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