T&T cops kill four

...detective shot in forearm during gunfight, Uzi sub-machine gun seized

(Trinidad Express) Police officers have shot and killed four men in two separate incidents.

At about 5a.m. yesterday a party of officers from the North Eastern Division Task Force led by Inspector Roger Alexander and Sgt Cornelius Samuel went to a home at McDonald Hill, Morant, where they planned to execute a warrant to search for arms and ammunition.

Police told the Express that the officers had the home under surveillance for a period of time, before the decision was made to get the warrant.

However, before the officers could knock on the door, it was reported that they were shot at by unknown persons inside the home. Fearful for their lives, the policemen took cover, and returned fire.

After a short while, the officers realized that no one in the home was shooting at the police, and the officers cautiously made their way inside the premises. Once inside, they found two men, Gilbert Brown AKA “GAZA” who resided at the home along McDonald Hill, and Jeremy Clunis from Chinapoo Morvant, bleeding from injuries they sustained in the shootout.

The officers also found and seized one Uzi sub-machine gun with several rounds of ammunition.

The two injured men were then rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, however, both men died shortly after 6:00 a.m  Both men, police said, were known to them, as they were both suspects in several gun related offences in the area. Brown, police said, had a matter that was currently before the courts for the possession of four firearms.

Meanwhile, at around 10.45p.m. a taxi driver was headed along Pointe a Pierre with four male passengers and headed to Couva. In the vicinity of Petrotrin’s refinery compound, one asked to be dropped off at the Augustus Long Hospital located at Beaumont Hill. When the driver stopped, one passenger pulled a gun and hijacked the taxi driver as a second passenger announced a holdup. The taxi driver was robbed of US $1060, a TT$6000 cell phone and the keys to the vehicle.

Two passengers were also robbed, and the victims were all thrown out of the vehicle near St Margaret’s Village. Police were contacted and an all points bulletin was issued.

The stolen car was spotted in the vicinity of Sum Sum Hill, and a chase began.