A wave of persistent brutal violence has shaken Trinidad and Tobago, with at least 30 people killed in targeted attacks, shootings and fatal assaults across the nation in the five weeks since the government imposed a new state of emergency (SoE) to curb rising crime, Deputy Police Commissioner Suzette Martin confirmed last Friday. The chilling death toll averages out to roughly one killing per day since the SoE took effect on March 3, defying official pledges to restore public safety.
Among the victims are people from all walks of life, including high-profile figures, children, working professionals and even an elite athlete. One of the most high-profile killings took place on March 13, when controversial real estate developer Danny Guerra was ambushed and gunned down by two masked gunmen in a white car as he returned to his vehicle outside his Sangre Grande business premises. Just one week later, on March 17, 28-year-old female cricketer Rashme Deoajit was found stabbed to death with her throat slit in her Cedros home; a man known to the family has since been charged in connection with her murder.
The violence has also claimed the lives of some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. On March 31, an 11-month-old toddler, Jayden Sutton, was shot and killed alongside his 25-year-old father Joseph Sutton as the pair slept in their St James home. Police confirmed the father had been a witness to a separate shooting earlier that month and was cooperating with investigators, suggesting the killing was a targeted retaliatory attack. On March 23, three young men – 17-year-old Jordan Cudjoe Burke, 22-year-old Ishmael Matthews, and 21-year-old Roberto Samuel Carlos – were gunned down in a hail of bullets inside a ground-floor bedroom at Burke’s family property in Penal. Burke was the son of deceased local businessman and community activist Cedric Burke. That same day, the beaten body of 20-year-old mentally ill David Ramlakhan was found abandoned in bushes 200 feet from his New Grant home, where he had been left to die.
Other victims include serving soldiers, business owners, and everyday residents going about their daily routines. On March 14, 30-year-old soldier Jaelani Garcia Williams was ambushed and shot dead while approaching his SUV outside a Chaguanas mini-mart; investigators recovered a loaded pistol from Williams’ possession along with multiple spent shell casings from the shooter’s weapons. Four people were killed across separate incidents on March 15 alone, including three men in different shootings across Laventille, and an unidentified man whose decomposing body was found floating in a Sangre Grande pond. Multiple other killings between March and early April have left victims unidentified, as law enforcement struggles to keep pace with the surge in violence.
The ongoing bloodshed directly contradicts assurances delivered by senior government officials when the new SoE was announced. At the time of the declaration, Attorney General John Jeremie stated the government was determined to “never allow this country to deteriorate into the taste of chaos and bloodshed which we met in May 2025 when we took office.” To date, the state of emergency has failed to break the pattern of daily violence that has gripped the nation, leaving communities reeling from a steady stream of deadly attacks.