Two Friday night murders push 2026 toll to 100

Two killings in Ari­ma and Diego Mar­tin have pushed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mur­der toll for 2026 to 100.

The first in­ci­dent oc­curred around 4pm on Fri­day in the Ma­tu­ri­ta Trace Ex­ten­sion, Ari­ma, where 50-year-old Joel Plaza of By­pass Road was shot while un­load­ing items out­side his home. He was found with mul­ti­ple gun­shot wounds af­ter res­i­dents re­port­ed hear­ing ex­plo­sions. The as­sailants fled the scene in ve­hi­cles in an un­known di­rec­tion. The mo­tive re­mains un­clear.

The sec­ond in­ci­dent took place just af­ter mid­night on Sat­ur­day in Riv­er Es­tate, Diego Mar­tin, near Dirk’s Mi­ni Mart. A group of men who were lim­ing in the area came un­der fire af­ter armed men ex­it­ed a white ve­hi­cle. Dur­ing the at­tack, Mc Don­ald Bai­ley, 52, of Blue Basin Road, was shot mul­ti­ple times and died at the scene. Two oth­er men, An­tho­ny Williams, 32, and Giles Gin­net, 54, were al­so in­jured. They were tak­en for med­ical treat­ment and are list­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion.

The lat­est killings move the 2026 homi­cide toll from 98 on Fri­day to 100.

For com­par­i­son by April 10 last year, the coun­try record­ed 111 mur­ders.

April’s to­tal now stands at 10 killings, com­pared with 13 for the same pe­ri­od in the month last year.