A daring daylight robbery yielded deadly returns for three bandits after police used a signal from the very items they stole to track them down, before all of them were killed in a shootout at Todds’s Road, Talparo, yesterday afternoon.
The three dead men are believed to have been connected to a robbery where thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes were stolen earlier at Todd’s Road.
According to police reports, at 10 am yesterday a sales truck arrived at the Papa James Cafe to make some deliveries. As the truck parked, a Nissan Tiida pulled up and two gunmen emerged and announced a hold-up.
During the robbery, the bandits also disarmed the security guard at the cafe before escaping with his gun and the delivery van which was loaded with cigarettes.
The van was later found at La Gloria Road abandoned. A hole was found in the side of the van. Police believe the cigarettes, valued at over $80,000, and other items were pulled from the vehicle.
Police then launched a manhunt for the bandits. Their search took them to a house on Fitt Trace, off Todd’s Station Road, at around 1 pm.
Residents told the T&T Guardian that several police vehicles entered the roadway. Officers who emerged from the vehicles, they recalled, appeared to be following a signal which originated from the stolen items. The signal led them to the property where the bandits were hiding out.
After spending about half an hour confirming where the signal was the strongest, from a yellow house on the street, a resident said an officer went to the house and knocked on the door. But when the officer identified himself to the person who answered the door, residents said, gunshots rang out, prompting the officer at the door to take evasive action.
“It was gunshots like that,” said one resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The officers returned fire and when the shooting stopped, three of the four men who were in the house had suffered fatal wounds. They were taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility where they were pronounced dead.
The fourth man, who was reportedly the owner of the house, was unhurt. Residents said he gave himself up to police and was taken into custody.
One of the officers in the operation, PC Gangaram, was hit in the leg during the gunfight.
Two of the dead men have been identified as Kadeem Welch and Dion Caldon.
Welch, 22, was very well known to police, as he had over 40 warrants and had been to court previously for shooting police officer PC Hakeem Blake outside a bar in Sangre Grande in December 2016. He died 10 days short of his 23rd birthday.
Caldon was said to be an employee of WASA. The third dead man remained unidentified up to press time.
