Derek Achong

A 18-year-old su­per­mar­ket em­ploy­ee who was in­jured in a car ac­ci­dent while at­tempt­ing to flee a gang of rob­bers on Tues­day, has died at hos­pi­tal. Po­lice said Shais Khan, of St Au­gus­tine, died short­ly af­ter 4 pm on Wednes­day at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope.

Ac­cord­ing to in­ves­ti­ga­tors around 8 pm on Tues­day, Khan was leav­ing his work­place, Hi­lo Food Stores in St Au­gus­tine, when he was at­tacked by a group of men who at­tempt­ed to rob him of jew­el­ery and his cell­phone. Po­lice said Khan might have strug­gled with his at­tack­ers for sev­er­al min­utes be­fore man­ag­ing to es­cape.

Khan ran to­wards the East­ern Main Road but while at­tempt­ing to cross the busy road, a car head­ing east struck him. He was tak­en to hos­pi­tal where he was be­ing treat­ed for a col­lapsed lung, se­vere head in­juries and in­ter­nal bleed­ing. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said they have re­ceived sev­er­al re­cent re­ports which sug­gest­ed a crim­i­nal gang was op­er­at­ing near the su­per­mar­ket at night and would tar­get the su­per­mar­ket em­ploy­ees and cus­tomers.

Po­lice said reg­u­lar po­lice pa­trols have been in­sti­tut­ed in the area in a bid to dis­cour­age fur­ther in­ci­dents. Se­nior Supt David Abra­ham and de­tec­tives of the North­ern Di­vi­sion are prob­ing Khan's death and the spate of rob­beries.