(Trinidad Express) Detectives from the Arima Criminal Investigations Department recovered two handguns, a shotgun and four shotgun cartridges on Tuesday after being involved in a shoot-out with a carload of gunmen.
It was the first of two shoot-outs involving police in less than 13 hours.
Around 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Arima CID officers were on mobile patrol in Samaroo Village, Arima, when they observed a Nissan Sentra B15 car with four occupants acting suspiciously.
The officers attempted to intercept the vehicle when the occupants opened fire on them.
The officers returned fire. The driver of the Nissan B15 crashed the car in a ditch.
Three of the car’s occupants were arrested while the fourth escaped.
One of the suspects, a 25-year-old man from Thomasos Terrace, Sherwood Park, Arima, was injured in the shoot-out and was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where he is detained under police guard.
The two other men are a 23-year-old from Mendez Drive in Champs Fleurs and a 26-year-old from Olton Road in Arima.
The officers were also able to recover three firearms, two semi-automatic pistols and a shotgun, together with four 12-gauge cartridges.
Enquiries later revealed that around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the gunmen were involved in the shooting of an Arima man. Marcus Monix, 21, was shot while crossing the Priority Bus Route.
According to reports, Monix was crossing the road when a Nissan B15 with four gunmen opened fire on him.
Monix sustained a gunshot wound to his right hand. The Nissan B15 sped off.
The three suspects currently in police custody are assisting the officers in their investigations.
The officers who were involved in the shoot-out and the detention of the gunmen were yesterday commended for their “keen powers of observation”.
Public Information officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Sgt Wayne Mystar, in yesterday’s daily police briefing, said: “The officers involved in the seizure were Insp Baptiste, PC Bernard, WPC Thomas-Hernandez and PC Ramdial. We tip our hats to these officers on a job well done.”
The second shoot-out involving police occurred around 6.15 a.m. yesterday in Caroni.
A 25-year-old Santa Cruz men was fatally shot in that incident.
In an unrelated incident around 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday, officers of the Sangre Grande Police Station seized two 16-gauge shotguns in a forested area in Guaico Trace, Sangre Grande.
No one was arrested in that incident.
