Gunman kills bodyguard of senior T&T public servant

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Police were searching for the gunman who shot and killed the bodyguard of a public servant who had recently indicated that threats had been made against her life amid allegations of corruption within a government-funded programme.

Curtis Gibson was shot several times at his home in Malabar, east of here. Television reports on Thursday night quoted his wife as saying that she could only scream in terror as the gunman fired several shots at Gibson, who she said had also received death threats.
Gibson, 42, had been identified as the bodyguard of the deputy director of the controversial Life Sport Programme, Ruth Marchan, who had earlier this month gone public with a threat on her life and that of two senior officials at the Ministry of Sport following the suspension of the programme.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar had ordered an audit into the programme and moved it to the Ministry of National Security away from the Ministry of Sport.
Marchan told the Trinidad Express newspaper yesterday that the murder of her bodyguard was "very serious" and that he had links to a section of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen who were beneficiaries of the Life Sport programme.

"They come for him ... burst down his door," she told the newspaper.
Gibson's murder has pushed Trinidad's murder toll to 208, compared with 180 at June 26 last year.