NORTH Eastern Division police were bracing on Monday night for reprisal shootings and an upsurge in violence after the murder of a sales clerk at his workplace – a clothing store in Aranguez.

Police said they were told “two carloads of gunmen” were targeting people in Malick in a direct response to the murder of Keston Alves hours earlier.

Alves, 38, of Second Caledonia, Malick was killed on Monday afternoon when a gunman ran into the clothing store Threadz and shot him. Alves’ murder, police said, was gang-related.

Police sources said a top member of the ABG gang is the cousin of Alves. That person is currently in remand prison, having been charged with murder.

Alves’ murder, police believe, was in retaliation for the shooting death of Kelum Williams – the nephew of another gang leader – on Sunday afternoon.

Police said 24-year-old Williams left his Upper Sixth Avenue, Malick home to visit a friend who lives nearby when he was shot dead. Williams’s uncle is said to be a senior member of the Rasta City gang.

The ABG and Rasta City gangs, whose origins were in east Port of Spain, are engaged in a deadly conflict as they seek to expand their territory. Police sources said the ABG and Sixx gangs – the latter being a rival of Rasta City – have come to an understanding and are both targeting Rasta City members.

Police confirmed that neither Williams and Alves was involved in criminal activities and they were murdered only because of their relationship to gang members.

Police sources in North Eastern Division said officers were on high alert on Monday night and had stepped up patrols, especially in the Second Caledonia area.

Speaking on Monday afternoon, the owner of the clothes store, who asked not to be identified, said he had been friends with Alves for years and they were planning to celebrate his (the store owner's) birthday later in the evening.