An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

A Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) con­sta­ble at­tached to the of­fice of the Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion was rushed to hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day, af­ter ac­ci­den­tal­ly shoot­ing him­self in the leg.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred around 2 pm near River­side Plaza, Besson Street, Port-of-Spain.

The ac­ci­den­tal dis­charge trig­gered alarm among near­by of­fi­cers, some of whom drew their firearms briefly, be­liev­ing they were un­der at­tack by the crim­i­nal el­e­ment.

Re­ports in­di­cate that the of­fi­cer was walk­ing across Pic­cadil­ly Street to­ward River­side Plaza when his firearm dis­charged, caus­ing him to fall to the ground.

Guardian Me­dia was told that As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Bri­an Sood­een as­sist­ed in ren­der­ing first aid at the scene.

One of­fi­cer re­port­ed­ly re­moved his belt and used it as a tourni­quet to stem blood loss from the of­fi­cer’s right up­per leg.

An­oth­er of­fi­cer at­tached to the Po­lice Band as­sist­ed in plac­ing the in­jured man in­to a ve­hi­cle, af­ter which he was trans­port­ed by ACP Sood­een and oth­er of­fi­cers to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

The of­fi­cer was tak­en in­to emer­gency surgery short­ly af­ter ar­rival.

His uni­form and per­son­al ef­fects were lat­er col­lect­ed by se­nior of­fi­cers.

An in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the in­ci­dent.