Former SoE detainee gunned down in George Street

Shane Su­perville

A 27-year-old man was shot and killed near his home on George Street, Port of Spain, on Sun­day night, less than a week af­ter his re­lease from de­ten­tion un­der the State of Emer­gency.

De­shawn Man­son, al­so known as “Deedee”, was found dead near the Health Cen­tre around 10.20 pm.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers were on pa­trol in the area when res­i­dents alert­ed them to a man's body.

Man­son was iden­ti­fied by a rel­a­tive, who de­clined to an­swer ques­tions about the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing his death.

Po­lice said oth­er peo­ple in the area al­so de­clined to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found sev­er­al spent 9mm shells at the scene.

Of­fi­cers from the Re­gion I Homi­cide Bu­reau are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Man­son had been de­tained un­der a Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­der (PDO) dur­ing the State of Emer­gency.

Ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion con­tained in the PDO, in­ves­ti­ga­tors iden­ti­fied Man­son as a mem­ber of the 9 Gang, which au­thor­i­ties de­scribed as an or­gan­ised crim­i­nal group op­er­at­ing in Laven­tille and Port of Spain.

The or­der al­leged that the group was in­volved in mur­ders, armed rob­beries, nar­cotics traf­fick­ing and firearm dis­tri­b­u­tion. Au­thor­i­ties al­so al­leged that the group had ac­cess to high-pow­ered weapons and was in­volved in an on­go­ing vi­o­lent con­flict with ri­val groups, in­clud­ing plans for re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings in pub­lic spaces.

It's un­clear if Man­son was ever charged since al­le­ga­tions con­tained in the PDO have not been test­ed in court.