(Trinidad Express) Drama unfolded in Tunapuna yesterday as two women, identified as robbery suspects, were shot and killed by a policewoman assigned to the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation Municipal Police. The officer shot the women after she responded to a robbery at the Tunapuna Market.
The victims were identified as Latoya Mars, 26, and Susan Frederick, who police said could be in her mid-30s. Both victims are from the Factory Road, Diego Martin, community, police said.
WPC Patrice St Louis, who fired the two fatal shots, was highly commended by market vendors for her decisive action.
A man, who claimed he was the nephew of one of the women, expressed shock over the incident at the scene, saying his aunt told him she was going to collect something in Tunapuna.
Mars was shot in the head and died at the scene, while Frederick sustained a gunshot injury to the upper left side of her body and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
Frederick was taken to the facility by PCs Winsden Rajcoomar and Ronan Newton, of the Tunapuna CID, who first responded to the incident. She was found lying face-down in a drain and had a gash to her face, which officers believe she may have sustained when she struck her head on the pavement.
Frederick, police said, was found in a crouched position behind the steering wheel of a car.
The deceased were reportedly attempting to flee the scene of the robbery when Mars, the driver of the vehicle—a white Nissan Sunny, licensed PAM 8680—drove north onto St Vincent Street, which is a one-way street, in attempting to elude police. After they were shot, Mars crashed into a Peugeot motorcar parked near the corner of Sapodilla and St Vincent Streets.
