A car theft in Arou­ca end­ed with a woman’s death and a man­hunt for the ban­dits on the Beetham late Sat­ur­day.

Po­lice said three ban­dits stole a sil­ver Nis­san Note from the own­er at gun­point and drove it on­to the high­way but were pur­sued by of­fi­cers of the North-Cen­tral Di­vi­sion.

The ban­dits drove the car over the fly­over near Mar­itime Round­about and con­tin­ued to dri­ve west, on the east­bound lane against the flow of traf­fic. How­ev­er, of­fi­cers of the High­way Pa­trol Unit were able to in­ter­cept the ve­hi­cle. The ban­dits shot at the of­fi­cers, who re­turned fire.

The ban­dits aban­doned the car near 17th Street, op­po­site the Beetham Land­fill, and ran away.

When of­fi­cers caught up to the car, res­i­dents flagged them down and in­formed them that a woman had been hit by a bul­let dur­ing the shootout.

Po­lice took the woman to the hos­pi­tal, where she lat­er died.

Of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain CID, Task Force, High­way Pa­trol Unit and oth­er units vis­it­ed the scene.—SHANE SU­PERVILLE