Five homicides among 11 deaths as T&T enters new year

By Ot­to Car­ring­ton

and Sascha Wil­son

Trinidad and To­ba­go record­ed eleven deaths be­tween De­cem­ber 31, 2025, and Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, in­clud­ing five homi­cides and six oth­er fa­tal in­ci­dents, as the coun­try en­tered the new year.

The five homi­cides oc­curred in east Port-of-Spain, El So­cor­ro, Mara­bel­la, Pe­nal, and De­laford, To­ba­go.

The first mur­der of 2026 took place when 58-year-old busi­ness­man Ricky Tay­lor was fa­tal­ly shot near his busi­ness at the cor­ner of Prince and George Streets, Port-of-Spain, around 1.30 pm on New Year’s Day.

Tay­lor, a well-known mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty, had re­port­ed­ly been threat­ened by gang mem­bers in the area, sources told Guardian Me­dia. Po­lice said in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve he may have been pro­vid­ing in­for­ma­tion to law en­force­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Tay­lor was lim­ing with friends at the LOVE (Laven­tille Out­reach for Ver­ti­cal En­rich­ment) Move­ment of­fice on George Street short­ly be­fore be­ing shot by a gun­man.

Mem­bers of the move­ment de­scribed Tay­lor’s killing as “a dev­as­tat­ing blow to our com­mu­ni­ty, es­pe­cial­ly at the start of a new year when we were hop­ing for peace and progress.”

LOVE Move­ment po­lit­i­cal leader Lennox Smith said Tay­lor had been prepar­ing to as­sist with a New Year’s Day frol­ic at the Em­pow­er­ment Cen­tre and was mo­ments away from help­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty gath­er­ing.

“He was sup­posed to cook and help or­gan­ise the fes­tiv­i­ties,” Smith said. “We had giv­en him some mon­ey to aug­ment the stock of drinks, and we were look­ing for­ward to a won­der­ful start to the year. Min­utes lat­er, bul­lets shat­tered that mo­ment.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to Tay­lor’s mur­der are on­go­ing.

Hours be­fore the new year, 53-year-old Dex­ter Grif­fith, a labour­er from Isaac Av­enue, Plai­sance Park, was fa­tal­ly shot in Mara­bel­la. Po­lice said Grif­fith was lim­ing with two oth­er men, ages 36 and 30, along a track at the cor­ner of George Street and Charles Street around 9 pm when a ve­hi­cle trav­el­ing north along George Street stopped near­by.

A masked man ex­it­ed the left rear door armed with a firearm. The men fled through the track as the as­sailant fired at them. A res­i­dent who heard the gun­shots con­tact­ed po­lice. Grif­fith’s body was found on the ground, and of­fi­cers re­cov­ered sev­en spent shells and one live 9mm round at the scene.

In El So­cor­ro, 76-year-old Gob­in De­onar­ine was shot by a lone gun­man on a bi­cy­cle while play­ing cards with friends on Per­sad Lane.

In Pe­nal, 63-year-old labour­er Alan Singh was found dead in his home on Co­quer­an Dri­ve on Wednes­day. Rel­a­tives had last seen him alive on Mon­day. When they vis­it­ed his home on Wednes­day morn­ing around 9.45 am, they de­tect­ed a foul stench and dis­cov­ered his de­com­pos­ing body in the bush­es be­hind Her­itage Gath­er­ing Sta­tion pump #175, about 100 feet from his shack. Singh had lived alone in a 10 x 10 gal­va­nized struc­ture.

An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre.

In To­ba­go, 26-year-old Jerome Woods was found out­side his De­laford apart­ment with mul­ti­ple gun­shot wounds.

Five oth­er fa­tal­i­ties were record­ed across the twin-is­land state.

Ten-month-old Alya Amalia Ramjit died in a sus­pect­ed drown­ing at her home in Diego Mar­tin. Po­lice said the child had been left in the care of her grand­moth­er around 3 pm while her fa­ther briefly went up­stairs. Mo­ments lat­er, he dis­cov­ered Alya face down in the fam­i­ly’s four-foot-deep swim­ming pool.

He at­tempt­ed re­sus­ci­ta­tion with the help of a friend be­fore tak­ing her to Val­ley Med­ical and sub­se­quent­ly to St James Med­ical, where she was pro­nounced dead by Dr Ben­ny-Lodge at 4.15 pm. Of­fi­cers not­ed a bruise on her right eye­brow. A post-mortem has been sched­uled.

In Mor­vant, Ronald Richards, al­so known as “Psy­cho” and de­scribed as a street dweller, was found naked and un­re­spon­sive in the Mal­ick Riv­er around 11.40 am on Wednes­day. Tran­sit Po­lice and of­fi­cers from Barataria Po­lice Sta­tion re­spond­ed, with Homi­cide Re­gion Two and NED Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors pro­cess­ing the scene. Po­lice said Richards, of African de­scent and slim build, bore mi­nor abra­sions and had been known to sleep in a makeshift struc­ture along the river­bank. An au­top­sy is sched­uled for to­day.

In Bar­rack­pore, 57-year-old Vish­nu Ram­per­sad was found mo­tion­less in his bed­room; po­lice are treat­ing the death as a sus­pect­ed sui­cide.

Codel Coun­ty, 37, died af­ter falling from a house he was paint­ing along Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road, New Grant. The own­er of the house heard a noise and on check­ing found Coun­ty with blood ooz­ing from his ears, nose, head, and eyes. He died at the scene. Po­lice said no foul play is sus­pect­ed.

An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be done at the San Fer­nan­do Mor­tu­ary.

The tenth fa­tal­i­ty in­volved a road traf­fic ac­ci­dent in South Oropouche, where 53-year-old Amar­jit Balkissoon was struck by a Nis­san Ser­e­na while at­tempt­ing to cross the South­ern Main Road.

A 36-year-old Unit­ed States na­tion­al died fol­low­ing what in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve was a fall from the sixth floor at the Trinidad Hilton ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Jonathan Claude, from Cy­press, Texas, was a guest at the ho­tel.

Pre­lim­i­nary re­ports in­di­cate that the in­ci­dent oc­curred short­ly be­fore 5 am. In­quiries in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the death are con­tin­u­ing.