Yvonne Webb

Three po­lice of­fi­cers were in­jured yes­ter­day af­ter a pris­on­er es­caped from the cell­block at the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates Court.Se­nior of­fi­cers say an in­ves­ti­ga­tion has since been launched in­to how pris­on­er Ka­reen Smart, 28, was able to es­cape.Smart, from La Ro­maine, was re­cap­tured by po­lice who chased af­ter him a short dis­tance away, near Keate and Irv­ing Street.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port, around 3.50 pm, Smart was be­ing tak­en out of the cell­block af­ter ap­pear­ing in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates Court on sev­er­al charges, in­clud­ing lar­ce­ny, rob­bery and nar­cotics pos­ses­sion. While pris­on­ers were be­ing loaded in­to the van to be tak­en back to Re­mand Yard prison, he pushed down two of­fi­cers and ran down Har­ris Street.

An alarm was raised and po­lice from the cell­block, CID and Task Force chased af­ter the pris­on­er. Smart was even­tu­al­ly re­cap­tured near the ceme­tery at Irv­ing and Keate Streets.Of­fi­cer Mo­hammed, who tried to jump over a fence near the ceme­tery, dur­ing the chase, hurt his legs.Mo­hammed and the two oth­er uniden­ti­fied of­fi­cers who were knocked down were tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where they were treat­ed.

Smart is ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore a San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trate this morn­ing, charged with es­cap­ing law­ful cus­tody and as­sault­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer.