Which means that scores of undetected killers are walking among Trinidad and Tobago’s 1.2 million population as the new year starts, perhaps stalking fresh victims.

Homicide detectives painted this stark, frightening picture of how life could unfold in 2005, as they revealed statistics of the murders, providing a clear indication that the killers are most likely youths between the ages of 16 and 22.

The majority of the victims were also youths, police said.

Another alarming trend to take root in 2004 was for witnesses to murder to dodge the limelight, fearful to come forward and provide testimony against suspects, because they realise they themselves could become targets for killing.

For 2004, as at midday on December 31, there were 35 more murders than 2003, when the toll was 229.

And the weapon of choice was the gun, with bullets accounting for the lives of 70 percent of the victims last year. Cutlasses and knives were the next weapons.

In revealing details of where the murders took place in terms of policing divisions, police sources issued a strident call to Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma and Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls to put indictable matters before the High Court and the magistracy on the front burner.

Justice was too slow, despite the assurances from the powers-that-be, sources declared.

They said detectives who were needed to pursue, identify and press charges against suspected murderers were invariably tied up in court.

This was because cases in which they were involved were postponed and adjourned with regularity — often unnecessarily as well as frustratingly — so they did not have enough time to pursue their investigations into unsolved murders.

Current lax bail provisions also needed to come under scrutiny, senior police sources insisted.

An influential police source said while the PNM Government was moving in the correct direction to get professional help for the Police Service by recruiting US criminal justice expert, Prof Stephen Mastrofski, and a team of advisers to streamline the management system, there were fundamental moves to fighting crime which were crying out to be implemented, for example, streamlining court procedure.

He hoped that Mastrofski would fast-track the introduction of DNA testing as a means of pinning down criminals with foolproof evidence. "This is a very vital area, particularly when we have the phenomenon of witnesses refusing to come forward," he said, adding that nevertheless Trinidad and Tobago’s detectives were above average in the field.

He said they had specialised in crime-scene detection and in both ballistic and fingerprint-testing had made giant strides, thanks to computer technology.

"Hopefully, what Mastrofski will bring is a plan that can help us improve, but the basic faults we can fix ourselves," he said, recalling that when Scotland Yard advisers were here during the late 1980s, they came highly recommended, but their actual impact was not too fruitful, perhaps because their main emphasis was on chasing down a reputed drug cartel in the Police Service. The culture of the people here is different to the people of England, or even the USA. This is very important, and must be taken into account. In England, a thief would be caught and would confess immediately, but here a man is caught in crime red-handed and yet convincingly denies he was on the scene. When they were leaving, Scotland Yard noted that it was in our nature to lie... that was our culture," he said.

Public perception has it that suspects are bullied by police to elicit confessions, locked away in police stations and tortured, the critics say.

However, this is denied by police, who said this was a figment of the imagination of legal representatives of the accused.

A source said these days detectives abided by the judges’ rules.

"We are trained...there are various techniques. There is no need to use brute force to get confessions from suspects," he said, adding that most detectives operated way beyond the call of duty.

Police are yet to identify the man, who was of African descent and was wearing a black vest, yellow jersey and black three-quarter pants. His hair was in cane row plaits and he appeared to be aged 19-21.

Residents of Rock City said the man was not from the neighbourhood. "Nobody know he. Where he come from? Why they come and dump he here?" one woman asked.

For Beverly Le Gair, owner of the unfinished house where the dead man was found, the gruesome discovery was an unpleasant surprise. "First time I see him I say: ‘What blight is this?’

Le Gair said she was at home around 1.30 pm, when children from the neighbourhood told her a dead man was lying at the back of the house — which was recently blessed by a pastor.

Le Gair said she did not believe the children, but decided to investigate. Accompanied by her common-law-husband, Albert Alexander, she walked to the unfinished house at Nicholas Lane. What they saw panicked her husband.

"My mister start to sweat. He want to know what going on," she recalled. Le Gair said the police were contacted and on their arrival she asked them to remove the body quickly.

Aquille was hit with a stray bullet minutes into the new year in the yard of his Cameron Road, Petit Valley home. His mother Lystra Raymond-Jeffrey said that her son is "God blessed to be alive".

Aquille was at home on Sunday after doctors took out the bullet fragments from his left side ribs. He was still in a bit of pain but this did not take away from the joy his family was feeling.

"A little pain we can handle. That other pain if he was not alive I don’t know how I would cope with that," Raymond-Jeffrey said.

On Friday, as is the family tradition, Aquille and his three siblings were in the front yard watching the fireworks when a stray bullet hit soon after the new year countdown.

No one knew what it was and when Aquille ran inside and his mother saw the blood, panic set in. "Is only when they take out that bullet from inside my son, only then I knew I could be at peace," she said.

Raymond-Jeffrey said she ate for the first time since Aquille was shot - a pigeon peas pelau that her eldest son cooked.

"I can’t begin to explain how I feel. I thank God a lot and for having Aquille with me at home."

Aquille and his mother prayed and he too thanked God that he was alive and well enough to play with his friends. He had several visitors, but was taken back to hospital after he felt ill.

The proud mother said Aquille was a strong child and that the Lord was telling her "everything is alright and I am in charge".

Last year another child, Aaliyah Aberdeen, 3, died after she was hit in the head with a stray bullet during new year’s celebrations. Police has never found out who fired the killer shot.

Raymond-Jeffrey thanked the doctors that saved her son’s life. Now the family will no longer keep the tradition of watching fireworks in the yard on Old Year’s night. Raymond-Jeffrey wants the family to stay inside as much as possible where it’s "safer"

UNC calls for resignations in the PNM

Port-of-Spain — The UNC is calling for the resignation of National Security Minister Martin Joseph, head of the Government’s Special Anti-Crime Unit Brigadier Peter Joseph as well as Prime Minister Patrick Manning, as head of the National Security Council.