ttgapers.com

Chris Anthony Joseph, a 24-year-old chemical engineer who just wanted to enjoy a night out at one of Woodbrook's newest liming spots, the Corner Bar, had his life cut short by a lone gunman after midnight yesterday. Corner Bar co-owner Chris Leacock said while he was saddened by the fatal shooting that occurred outside the bar after midnight yesterday, he wants to have it open for business tonight.

A man and a woman patron were also injured in the shooting. They were both in stable condition, police said last night.

The shooting occurred outside the trendy Corner Bar, at the corner of Gatacre Street and Ariapita Avenue, while it was crowded with patrons, many of whom were young adults just like Joseph who ended up ducking for cover. The gunman escaped.

Joseph was due to leave Trinidad next week to take up a job in Mexico, his mother Cherry-Ann Daniel said at her Pranz Gardens, Claxton Bay, home. He was the eldest of her three children and was the father of a five-month-old daughter, Jaden.

Daniel said he had recently resigned from bpTT to take up the job in Mexico. He was described as a "quiet, loving man." The Corner Bar has been opened for less than six months and the shooting occurred less than an hour after an a row which left one man with a wound to his head.

Police said the injured patron made no complaint to management and did not appear to want the police involved but instead returned with a gun. "The fella just get beat up. Somebody saw the fight happening and called the police. He came back and handled his business," one patron said.

The police confirmed a Rapid Response Unit did respond to the call regarding the dispute and eyewitnesses said they searched some young men and subsequently left.

A senior police officer said yesterday the police could not say as yet whether Joseph was involved in the altercation or whether he or the two injured patrons were a specific target of the gunman.

"We just heard shots and just jumped and fell to the floor," one patron said. "The shots sounded like fire crackers It sounded like eight or nine shots," another patron said.

Just minutes after the shooting, the police as well as units from the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT) arrived on the scene. There had been a regular uniformed police presence outside the Corner Bar up, which has at least two entrance points, until about two weeks ago.

A senior police officer said yesterday this was because the Corner Bar had been operating on a provisional liquor licence but when it received its general liquor licence about two weeks ago, the police were no longer required to be there.

There were no uniformed police or any security personnel visible at the Corner Bar when, and after, it opened for business on Saturday night.

Leacock said security at Corner Bar would be reassessed but noted, "It have no amount of security you could have to stop a man from firing five shots at three people in an area that is the most policed corner in Woodbrook."