(Trinidad Guardian) Gunmen used a shotgun and two handguns to execute father of two, Naiym Muhammed, 17 hours after his friend was killed.
Muhammed was shot at least 12 times in the head.
Muhammed, originally from Carenage, was gunned down on Monday night, moments after he stopped in front of a driveway just outside an apartment building which he was renting. He lived there with his wife and two children, ages 13 and ten months. Muhammed was the cousin of Head of Digital Content at CNC3, Sampson Nanton.
According to a police report, at 8.10 pm Muhammed was slumped behind the steering wheel of his car. He was dressed in Muslim garb.
The T&T Guardian was told by police investigators that Muhammed went to a mosque for evening prayers and then to the Chaguanas Police Station to sign, as he was currently before the courts on arms and ammunition charges.
Officers, however, believe Muhammed’s execution was linked to Monday’s killing of Carenage businessman Raul Joseph, 42.
Joseph was killed one month and a day after a knife-wielding home invader killed his wife, Andrea “Hannah” Edwards and left him paralysed. On Monday at 3 am, a man entered through a window and stabbed and chopped Joseph, who lay on an adjustable bed at his home at Moya Trace, Upper Haig Street, Carenage. Joseph, according to police, dealt in drugs, arms and ammunition.
Seventeen hours later, in what was believed to be another well-orchestrated killing, police said Joseph’s friend, Muhammed, was shot dead.
According to forensic pathologist Valery Alexandrov, three types of guns—two different types of handguns and a shotgun—were used to shoot Muhammed in the head. Alexandrov said the shots to Muhammed’s head came from the left and right side, which meant that “possibly” two gunmen, one of whom is believed to have held the two handguns, stood on either side of Muhammed’s vehicle and opened fire on him.
When the T&T Guardian visited the area where Muhammed was killed, his neighbours admitted to seeing a “suspicious vehicle” about one hour before the murder.
One resident, who wished not to be identified for his safety, said the vehicle pulled up behind a parked dump truck on the roadway for a while before Muhammed actually came driving in.
“We know that there were men in the car because when they parked up, we noticed that they never came out and as soon as Naiym drove up and stopped in front the yard by him, the gunmen ran out and surrounded his vehicle.
“I only hear real gunshots after. I knew he had to be dead. There was no way he could have survived all those bullets,” the resident said.
