Three peo­ple were killed and six oth­ers, in­clud­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer, were wound­ed dur­ing a shootout be­tween West­ern Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers and res­i­dents of Big Yard, Care­nage, this evening.

Res­i­dents said teenag­er Nao­mi Nel­son and the God­son of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley were among the dead. How­ev­er, the names of the vic­tims are yet to be re­vealed.

The TTPS said in a state­ment that West­ern Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers on pa­trol in Care­nage were at­tempt­ing to ar­rest a sus­pect who was lim­ing on the street with a group of men when the in­ci­dent hap­pened. It said as the of­fi­cers were try­ing to ap­pre­hend the sus­pect, an­oth­er man drew a gun and opened fire on the of­fi­cers around 7.30 pm. It said a po­lice of­fi­cer was shot but the of­fi­cer re­turned fire, strik­ing the shoot­er. It added that in the ex­change of gun­fire three peo­ple were fa­tal­ly wound­ed.

Nel­son, 14, of East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary, was said to have been walk­ing along the street when she was hit by a stray bul­let.

Res­i­dents said the ex­change of bul­lets sound­ed like "fire­works." How­ev­er, they are now call­ing for Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith to thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gate the ac­tion of the of­fi­cers.

It said ACP Jayson Forde, along with Snr Supt Pragg, In­sp Vin­cent and of­fi­cers from West­ern Di­vi­sion, In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB), Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol (ERP) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) re­spond­ed to main­tain law and or­der. It added that po­lice and sol­diers would con­tin­ue to main­tain a heavy pres­ence in Care­nage.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.