(Trinidad Guardian) Ten men armed with guns and cutlasses who stormed into the New City Mall, Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain, at around 10.45 am yesterday during an attempted robbery and were confronted by municipal police officers leading to a shoot-out.
Two men were reportedly injured during the exchange of gunfire with one shot in the chest and belly, and the other in the leg.
The mid-morning drama caused panic in the busy shopping area, with scores of people scrambling for cover as the gunshots rang out.
The city was crowded with back-to-school shoppers at the time.
Yesterday’s foiled robbery followed an incident in which a Chaguanas man was stabbed at a store in the mall on Friday afternoon, following which several thousand dollars worth of merchandise was stolen.
Municipal officers on patrol in the capital were alerted to the presence of the armed man after gunshots were heard coming from one of the stores. They entered the mall and confronted the men and there was an exchange of gunfire in which two persons were injured.
The remaining suspects fled.
As officers took the injured men to hospital, one of them escaped by jumping out of the vehicle. A manhunt was launched in the east Port-of-Spain area for the escapee but remained at large up to late yesterday.
The other suspect was treated at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and is warded in a stable condition under police guard.
Officers said yesterday’s incident could be connected to Friday’s stabbing and robbery. In the earlier incident, two men entered a store pretending to be customers. Minutes later, four other men entered the store while four others stood guard outside.
The men inside the store announced a robbery and began beating one of the store’s proprietors who was stabbed in his left arm and robbed of $400 in cash. Several items of clothing and shoes that were on display at the store’s entrance went missing during the melee.
The owner of a business located near the mall who witnessed yesterday’s shootout said shoppers were startled and scared by the gunshots.
One woman complained: “Imagine we have to duck from bullets in the city. Big morning time, the place busy with people doing last-minute shopping for school and we have to hide!”
Several persons liming on the Brian Lara Promenade also spoke about the fear and excitement. Among them was a group of elderly men.
One of them said: “We just here, sipping on we drinks then we hear the bullet but we can’t move too fast. We just cross the road to the other side and wait. What else we go do?”
The incident comes amidst heightened concerns about the crime situation in Port-of-Spain. In a statement just over a week ago, the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) appealed to the country’s leader not to remain silent about the crime situation.
DOMA said it was being inundated with calls, messages and communications from the business community and public about the acceleration in violence and uncontrolled lawlessness and expressed concern that criminals are living in an encouraging landscape of zero consequences.
