Trinidad: Gangster’s son killed in botched robbery

(Trinidad Guardian) Al­lan “AJ” Mar­tin, the son of slain gang­ster Al­lan “Scan­ny” Mar­tin, was shot dead by an off-du­ty po­lice of­fi­cer dur­ing an at­tempt­ed rob­bery in Ch­agua­nas on Sunday.

Po­lice said Mar­tin, 20, was linked to the Un­ruly Isis gang of En­ter­prise and has a crim­i­nal record.

Po­lice sus­pect­ed that Mar­tin, along with two ac­com­plices, at­tempt­ed to rob the off-du­ty of­fi­cer and his 25-year-old girl­friend out­side his home.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred just un­der two years af­ter po­lice killed Mar­tin’s cousin, Je­lani Saj­jad Mar­tin.

Fol­low­ing Je­lani’s death, sev­er­al of­fi­cers from the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion re­vealed that they feared for their lives as well as their fam­i­lies’ as they re­ceived death threats.

In Ju­ly 2017, Je­lani, 24, a mem­ber of the Un­ruly Isis gang, was shot dead by po­lice along the Ca­roni Sa­van­nah Road. Cen­tral Di­vi­sion po­lice were pa­trolling the area when Mar­tin al­leged­ly shot at them. They re­turned fire, hit­ting him sev­er­al times. He was tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty where he died. Wit­ness­es claimed that Je­lani had no gun and po­lice mur­dered him. 

Re­ports in­di­cat­ed that around 12.15 am, the of­fi­cer had just parked his SUV in front of his home in En­ter­prise and opened the gate. His girl­friend was sit­ting in the pas­sen­ger’s seat.

As he re-en­tered the ve­hi­cle to park it in the yard, he no­ticed through the rear-view mir­ror a SUV pull up be­hind.

Two masked men ex­it­ed while the dri­ver re­mained in the ve­hi­cle. Po­lice said the off-du­ty of­fi­cer shot at Mar­tin as he opened the pas­sen­ger’s door. Mar­tin was wear­ing a mask and gloves and was armed with a gun, the po­lice re­port stat­ed.

Po­lice said there was a gun­fight and the of­fi­cer fired sev­er­al shots at the sus­pects who ran off along Amow Street.

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion po­lice re­spond­ed and found Mar­tin bleed­ing in a track near­by with a mask and glove next to him. He was tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty where he died.

The dri­ver, a 20-year-old man from Rail­way Road, En­ter­prise, was ar­rest­ed. The SUV was im­pound­ed at the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion. Of­fi­cers found a false reg­is­tra­tion plate cov­er­ing the orig­i­nal. The third sus­pect, who was be­lieved to have been in­jured, es­caped and a man­hunt was launched for his ar­rest.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said that the of­fi­cer, in pro­tect­ing him­self and his girl­friend, fired 21 shots.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors did not re­cov­er Mar­tin’s gun at the scene due to the ter­rain and poor light­ing.

About Al­lan “Scan­ny” Mar­tin

Scan­ny, 42, was one of 12 men charged for the mur­der of Xtra Foods CEO Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man, who was ab­duct­ed from her home in Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, in De­cem­ber 2006. Al­though a ran­som was paid by her fam­i­ly, she was not re­leased and her body was nev­er found.

In Ju­ly 2015, Scan­ny be­came in­fa­mous when he, along co-ac­cused Christo­pher “Mon­ster” Sel­by and Has­san Atwell shot their way out of the Port-of-Spain Prison. In their get­away, they mur­dered PC Sher­man May­nard and in­jured a prison of­fi­cer. But Scan­ny’s free­dom was short-lived as he killed dur­ing a shootout with po­lice at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.