BY NALINEE SEELAL and RHONDOR DOWLAT Saturday, October 18 2008

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In just under five hours, five persons were murdered and police killed a teenager in a night of mayhem on Thursday.

The killings took place at Mt Lambert, Port-of-Spain, Maraval and Morvant between 8 pm and 12.30 am. The five murder victims, who were all shot to death, are:

* Lyndon Samuel, 35 — killed at City Gate, Port-of-Spain;

* Kevon Linton, 53 — killed at Maraval;

* Charmaine Benjamin, 49, and her son Kimo Nurse, 25—killed at Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain;

* Henry Sandy — killed in Morvant.

Homicide police said, based on their statistics, the murder toll was 426.

Meanwhile, in Mt Lambert, Keston Lewis, 19, died during a shootout with police. This was the sixth police killing for the year. Lewis, a waiter who lived at Chaguanas, got shot when officers of the Repeat Offenders Programme exchanged gunfire with four men after responding to a report of an attempted robbery at the Big Apple Recreation Club, Mt Lambert at about 8.30 pm.

Lewis died and two men were apprehended while a fourth man escaped. A pistol was recovered from the scene. Lewis’ mother Michelle Lewis yesterday said her son had allowed friends to lead him astray.

“Keston was too harden. He never listened to me and I warned him that his friends will carry him but they will not bring him back and this is exactly what happened,” Michelle Lewis said at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, where an autopsy on her son was done. Lewis worked as a waiter at Bat and Ball pub, Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain.

At about 9 pm, the first murder occurred when Lyndon Samuel, a cleaner, was gunned down near the Rituals Coffee Shop at City Gate. Police report the killing was captured on security cameras at the transit hub. Samuel, who lived at Angelina Terrace, Never Dirty, Morvant, was shot in the back, head and neck. Commuters scampered during the shooting as the killer ran out through the hub’s main entrance at South Quay and escaped.

Vendors at City Gate yesterday said they saw the killer as he ran away but could not give a description. Drivers for the Public Transport Service Corporation said they heard the gunshots but did not see the gunman.

At the Forensic Science Centre, a relative said Samuel, a father of two, may have been killed over a Nissan Sentra B-12 car which he bought recently.

The relative said Samuel had been harassed by several men to sell them the car and when he refused they threatened to kill him.

“He never smoked or drink and did not deserve to die in such a horrible way,” said the relative.

Kevon Linton, the second murder victim, was fatally shot several times in front of his wife at his home at Ordaz-Ville Drive, Saddle Road, Maraval at about 9.30 pm.

Police said gunmen broke down the front door of the house located on a steep hill overlooking Saddle Road. Police are yet to determine a motive for the killing.

Then, shortly after midnight, police received a report that Charmaine Benjamin and her son Kimo Nurse were brutally gunned down at their apartment 46-48 Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain.

Police believe four members of the upper Nelson Street gang went to the apartment and knocked on the door which Benjamin, who was eating a piece of bake and had a drink of mauby in her hand, opened. The gunmen shot her three times in the chest and she slumped close to the television set in the living room. Nurse, who ran to the kitchen, was shot seven times in the chest.

Homicide investigators Inspec-tor James and Sgt Sahadeo Singh went to the apartment along with a team of officers after neighbours called the Belmont Police Station. Residents said there was a war between gangs of upper and lower Nelson Street.

Charmaine Benjamin yesterday described Benjamin, her sister, as a kind and loving mother to Nurse and her other son Lyndell Nurse.

Charmaine said Nurse was not a member of any gang and believed he and his mother were killed to send a message to residents of lower Nelson Street.

“I am leaving it at the foot of the cross because my sister never hurt a fly. Trinidad is fast becoming a land of the lawless with no regard for the lives of innocent women or babies,” she said.

And at about 12.30 am, Henry Sandy was killed by two gunmen as he headed to his home at Angelina Terrace, Never Dirty, Morvant. Police believe Sandy, a security guard, was robbed before he was shot. Residents yesterday said they knew little about Sandy, who lived alone and was not originally from the area.