Trinidad: Five alleged bandits killed during shootout with police (Updated)

(File photo)
(File photo)

(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN) Screams and cries res­onat­ed from the hills of Laven­tille on Thurs­day night, af­ter po­lice shot and killed five men who opened fire on them.

The in­ci­dent is ex­pect­ed to trig­ger a blood war be­tween of­fi­cers and crim­i­nal gangs in the hotspot com­mu­ni­ty and po­lice are al­ready tak­ing pre­cau­tions to safe­guard their lives.

Two of the men killed were iden­ti­fied as Me­shack “Crash” Dou­glas and Kadeem Williams, while an­oth­er was iden­ti­fied on­ly as Shaquille.

The killings took place around 10.21 pm at Trou Macaque, Laven­tille.

Of­fi­cers of the In­ter-Agency Task Force Strike Team were on pa­trol in thre com­mu­ni­ty when the men al­leged­ly opened fire on them from a ve­hi­cle, hit­ting one of the po­lice of­fi­cer’s in the chest. His bul­let­proof vest saved him.

His col­leagues re­turned fire at the men, killing them. Four died on the scene while a fifth was sent to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival.

As the bod­ies were be­ing re­moved last night, women were heard bawl­ing. The de­ceased were said to be part of a gang re­spon­si­ble for rob­beries and shoot­ings in the Laven­tille and Mor­vant ar­eas. Po­lice re­cov­ered two firearms at the scene of the crime.

The T&T Guardian will bring you more as this sit­u­a­tion un­folds.