RHON­DOR DOWLAT

& SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Po­lice have ap­pre­hend­ed two of the sus­pects in­volved in an armed rob­bery and con­fronta­tion with of­fi­cers in Long­denville, Ch­agua­nas, on Tues­day night that led to the killing of three sus­pect­ed ban­dits by the law­men.

One of the sus­pects was lo­cat­ed hid­ing at a house in Bangladesh, St Joseph, at mid­day yes­ter­day, while the de­tails of the ap­pre­hen­sion of sec­ond sus­pect re­main undis­closed up to press time.

Au­thor­i­ties plan to place both sus­pects in an iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rade in the com­ing days.

The three were among four peo­ple killed by po­lice in two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents be­tween Tues­day night and yes­ter­day.

Three of five sus­pects in the Ch­agua­nas in­ci­dent were fa­tal­ly shot dur­ing a gun­fight with po­lice fol­low­ing a rob­bery at a gro­cery on Tues­day night.

The po­lice have urged any­one with in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing their iden­ti­ties to come for­ward to as­sist with the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The in­ci­dent un­fold­ed at 8 pm when five armed men en­tered the Da Hua Chi­nese Su­per­mar­ket, lo­cat­ed at the junc­tion of Wel­come Road North, Wel­come Road South, and Ra­goo­nanan Road.

The men threat­ened a cashier at gun­point and de­mand­ed cash be­fore flee­ing the scene in a Toy­ota Axio. The cashier im­me­di­ate­ly alert­ed the store’s own­er, who con­tact­ed the po­lice.

Of­fi­cers from the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Task Force, led by ASP Ramb­hani Dipc­hand, were on rou­tine pa­trol in the area and re­spond­ed swift­ly. They spot­ted the sus­pects head­ing west along Ra­goo­nanan Road and be­gan pur­su­ing the ve­hi­cle. Dur­ing the chase, the sus­pects fired at the of­fi­cers, prompt­ing a re­turn of gun­fire.

The ve­hi­cle even­tu­al­ly crashed at Koonoo Av­enue, af­ter the dri­ver lost con­trol and struck a dust­bin, veer­ing off the road. Po­lice closed in from both di­rec­tions and in­ter­cept­ed the ve­hi­cle.

Three sus­pects, all of whom had been wound­ed in the gun­fight, were tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where they were pro­nounced dead.

The two oth­er sus­pects man­aged to es­cape on foot in­to a near­by over­grown lot. Po­lice lat­er re­cov­ered a firearm equipped with a se­lec­tor switch and sev­er­al stolen items from the sus­pects’ ve­hi­cle.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the gro­cery yes­ter­day, it was open for busi­ness and the em­ploy­ee di­rect­ly in­volved was back out to work. How­ev­er, he de­clined to com­ment on the in­ci­dent.

Com­ment­ing on the po­lice re­sponse, ASP Dipchan said the ban­dits may be part of a gang op­er­at­ing in the area but not­ed they could be crim­i­nals from the North­ern Di­vi­sion. While the men re­mained uniden­ti­fied up to last evening, he said they ap­pear to be in their ear­ly 30s.

Res­i­dents of the area said they were pleased with the swift work of the po­lice.

A small busi­ness op­er­a­tor said as soon as the crime oc­curred it was post­ed on a com­mu­ni­ty chat.

He said, “We need more pa­trols in the area, res­i­dents are wor­ried for their safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, so to­day’s po­lice ac­tion is need­ed.”

An­oth­er busi­ness­man, who op­er­ates near where the ban­dits, were shot said, “These ban­dits are be­ing ar­rest­ed and com­ing back out on bail, which means that crim­i­nals are be­ing caught and let loose on the so­ci­ety. While the loss of any life is a tragedy, this may be the on­ly lan­guage some may un­der­stand.”

Ca­roni East MP Rishard Seecha­ran thanked the po­lice for their quick and de­ci­sive ac­tion.

“This will serve as a great de­ter­rence to per­sons want­i­ng to do harm and dis­tress ac­tiv­i­ties in this area,” Seecha­ran said.

He called for more pa­trols and CCTV cam­eras in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Man at­tack­ing vic­tim killed by re­spond­ing of­fi­cers

In the oth­er in­ci­dent, a 22-year-old Laven­tille man was shot and killed by po­lice af­ter he was caught chop­ping an­oth­er man yes­ter­day.

Of­fi­cers from the Port-of-Spain Task Force con­firmed that they re­ceived and re­spond­ed to a re­port of a chop­ping in­ci­dent at East­ern Quar­ry, Laven­tille. When they got to the scene at 3 pm, they saw Sha­keem “Fabi” Nick­ie at­tack­ing an­oth­er man.

Po­lice called on him to stop but he did not. He was then shot once in the up­per body.

Nick­ie was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead. His vic­tim al­so was tak­en to hos­pi­tal where he is be­ing treat­ed.

Po­lice said Nick­ie was a known pri­or­i­ty of­fend­er for shoot­ing and house break­ing of­fences.