Police yesterday recovered the body of a man who was dragged out of a maxi-taxi at Beetham Gardens during a robbery submerged in a drain running through the community.The body of 24-year-old Kendell Thomas was found the murky water in the canal near Sixth Street after police received information that Thomas' body may have been dumped there.Police had been searching for Thomas since early Wednesday after he was snatched.
Some 50 officers and sniffer dogs were used during the four exercises conducted by the lawmen between Wednesday and yesterday.Thomas, a passenger in a maxi-taxi heading into Port-of-Spain, was dragged out of the vehicle at 19th Street, Beetham Gardens by gunmen when the vehicle stopped to drop off two passengers around 1.30 am.Thomas' sister Sheena Charles, who was also in the vehicle, said her brother was grabbed after he tried to protect her from the bandits, one of whom broke an arm in his bid to escape.
The two passengers who were exiting allowed three gunmen into the vehicle and robbed the passengers and driver.Charles, who spoke with the T&T Guardian at her Carenage home, said her brother and friend Anna Lyons were in the back seat of the maxi with her when her brother began asking the bandits "Wha is dah one?"She said the men took her chain and tried to take her brother's. Throughout the ordeal Thomas, 24, a construction worker, kept asking the same question.
One of the bandits ordered everyone out of the maxi and Thomas, using his body, protected her from being dragged out. Charles said a man in the front seat then told the driver to drive off and he complied. One of the bandits, a teenager now in custody, fell out of the moving vehicle and broke his arm.Five people, between the ages 14 and 23, have been held in connection with the robbery and abduction of Thomas.
In an earlier interview at her Bagatelle, Diego Martin home yesterday, the victim's mother, Sheila Charles begged: "Remember you have parents too. Let my son go. I would like to know if he is dead or alive."She chastised both police and government officials for not doing enough to protect citizens from criminals who pounce on unsuspecting citizens near the Beetham Gardens.