Trinidad: Teen girls shot by police in robbery getaway car

The owners of Caribbean Jewellers survey the losses incurred following the midday robbery at the Gulf City Mall, Lowlands, Tobago, on Monday.
The owners of Caribbean Jewellers survey the losses incurred following the midday robbery at the Gulf City Mall, Lowlands, Tobago, on Monday.

(Trinidad Guardian) A 14-year-old form two stu­dent from a To­ba­go Sec­ondary School is said to be in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion and is fight­ing for her life af­ter she was shot in the head dur­ing an ex­change of gun­fire with po­lice yes­ter­day.

 
The girl was a pas­sen­ger in a gold Nis­san B16 ve­hi­cle, al­leged­ly used as the get­away car, fol­low­ing the rob­bery of Caribbean Jew­ellers at the Low­lands Mall on Mon­day.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, around mid­day, a man dressed in Mus­lim garb posed as a cus­tomer and robbed the es­tab­lish­ment of ap­prox­i­mate­ly $2.5 mil­lion worth in gold and di­a­mond jew­el­ry.

The man calm­ly walked out of the store in full view of un­sus­pect­ing pa­trons of the mall.

Po­lice lat­er re­ceived in­for­ma­tion about the car and it was in­ter­cept­ed at Union Vil­lage, Whim, dur­ing a road­block. Po­lice of­fi­cers said they were fired up­on by oc­cu­pants of the ve­hi­cle and they fired back, how­ev­er they man­aged to break through the road­block.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that of­fi­cers gave chase, but found that the ve­hi­cle had crashed in­to a light pole a short dis­tance away.

When of­fi­cers checked the ve­hi­cle, the 14-year-old girl of Bagatelle, To­ba­go, was found with the gun­shot wound to the head.

She was rushed to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment. Po­lice say they al­so found a quan­ti­ty of jew­el­ry and Mus­lim ap­par­el in the car.

A search was car­ried out in the sur­round­ing area and a male from Gold­en Lane was ar­rest­ed. An­oth­er male oc­cu­pant of Pump Mill lat­er sur­ren­dered to po­lice.

Lat­er in the day, a 13-year-old school­girl of Gold­en Lane went to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal with a from a gun­shot wound to the hand. She was treat­ed and is said to be un­der po­lice guard at hos­pi­tal. Her con­di­tion was de­scribed as sta­ble.

Of­fi­cers say, the dri­ver of the get­away car and the main sus­pect al­leged­ly in­volved in the rob­bery es­caped. They be­lieve he may have been shot. An am­ber alert was is­sued to all health fa­cil­i­ties to look out for any­one nurs­ing gun­shot wounds.

Mean­while, THA Chief Sec­re­tary and Sec­re­tary for Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy Kelvin Charles in a press re­lease urged stu­dents to be vig­i­lant.

Charles con­firmed that two stu­dents were in the car that was in­ter­cept­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), To­ba­go Di­vi­sion, fol­low­ing a rob­bery at the Low­lands Mall.

Charles said, he was deeply sad­dened by the in­ci­dent and even more con­cerned for the wel­fare of the stu­dents and their fam­i­lies.

He al­so con­firmed one of the stu­dents has since been flown to Trinidad for med­ical care and at­ten­tion.

He al­so urged stu­dents to be vig­i­lant about their sur­round­ings, as well as the friend­ships they form. “I re­al­ly want to en­cour­age the youth to be very cau­tious in these times. They are liv­ing at a time that calls for great re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. It is a time when their de­ci­sions can have se­ri­ous im­pli­ca­tions for their lives,” he said.

The Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy en­cour­aged all stu­dents to ad­here to the guide­lines and in­struc­tions of their teach­ers, prin­ci­pals and the poli­cies of their schools.

Charles said he was cur­rent­ly await­ing fur­ther de­tails sur­round­ing the in­ci­dent.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.