A MAN found chopped to death at Clifton Hill Circular in Laventille on Friday morning was identified yesterday as Kenroy Ballantyne of 42nd Street, McShine Lands, Laventille.

He was 28 years old and the father of one girl.

The police and Ballantyne's relatives believe he was killed merely because he lived in Laventille, an effect of the on-going gang warfare between the Beetham Gardens community and Laventille, which has claimed the lives of four people this year, including the latest victim.

His mother, Jazmine Ballantyne-Martyr, spoke to the Express yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, in Federation Park, where she had gone to identify his body.

"If you ask anyone about my son they will tell you that he was good people because if you know him like how we know him you would share our pain too."

She said she was told that he went out on Thursday afternoon to a lime at a bar on Maraval Road, following which he went at a party at D Bocas bar on Independence Square, Port of Spain.

Later that night, he left D Bocas and went over to the Picton Road, Laventille taxi-stand, at the corner of Duncan Street and Independence Square, where he was picked up by a PH driver.

Police said there was someone else in the car as together they ambushed Ballantyne and took him to Clifton Hill Circular, where they chopped him to death. The killers even chopped off his right hand.

His mother said when her son did not return home by Friday evening she became very worried because he was the kind of person who always remained in touch with his family.

"Even if his phone discharged he would find another cellphone to tell us where he is and that he is okay."

She said on Friday night she saw a television news report of an unidentified person found dead in the area, but when she read about the "John Doe found" in the Saturday Express, where the story included a detailed description of the man's clothing, she realised the body may have been her son's.

She said her fears were confirmed when she saw his body yesterday morning.

Police believe the murder was gang-related and is a continuation of a spate of violence between gangs from Beetham Gardens and Laventille.

Since the beginning of the year, three other people have been murdered in the gang warfare, while 12 have been injured from both communities as the gangs traded bullets.