A PORCH which overlooks the shoreline at Carenage became the grim setting for a murder yesterday when a dentist was gunned down.

Mervyn Maclaren, 64, was shot dead as he sat at the back of his Western Main Road, Carenage home which is adjacent to the seaside. At around 5.30 p.m., when a lone gunman approached him, opened fire and shot him three times in the face. The gunman then ran off.

Maclaren died on the spot, remaining in a sitting position with his head slumped back until his body was removed from the scene.

Maclaren, who operates a Henry Street practice, was a community favourite in Carenage where residents called him ’Doctor Mac’.

Residents expressed much shock and sadness over the murder of ’one of our own.’

Investigators were told the shooting may have been linked to a land dispute.

Maclaren’s murder pushed this year’s toll to 325. Officers from the Port of Spain Homicide Bureau are investigating.