Ak­ile Si­mon

As po­lice strug­gled with their fight in rid­ding the streets of il­le­gal firearms, 15 guns fell in­to the hands of crim­i­nals, af­ter a dar­ing day­light rob­bery at a se­cu­ri­ty firm in Wood­brook, yes­ter­day. Up to late last evening, of­fi­cers were search­ing for a man be­lieved to be con­nect­ed with MI-5 In­ves­ti­ga­tions Ltd, who they be­lieve may have been in­volved in the rob­bery. The sus­pect, who in­ves­ti­ga­tors said was an ex-in­mate of the Youth Train­ing Cen­tre in Arou­ca, was one of two men who robbed the Al­ber­to Street, Wood­brook, of­fice of the se­cu­ri­ty firm. Sources close to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion said 13, 9mm pis­tols, a re­volver and a shot­gun were tak­en from the es­tab­lish­ment. It was un­clear if am­mu­ni­tion was stolen. Fin­ger­prints ex­perts were un­able to lift print im­pres­sions from the scene. Of­fi­cers from the In­for­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Unit have viewed sev­er­al sur­veil­lance tapes on the premis­es which cap­tured the in­ci­dent.

Up to late last night, po­lice were at the scene con­duct­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, the in­ci­dent oc­curred around 3:15pm. Es­tate Con­sta­ble Leslie Thomp­son, who was on du­ty at the of­fice, was beat­en with a gun butt by one of the armed men who pro­ceed­ed to tie her up with duct tape. Thomp­son al­so lost a tooth dur­ing the in­ci­dent. She told of­fi­cers she was on du­ty at the of­fice when a man dressed in a uni­form re­sem­bling that of MI-5 and an­oth­er as a po­lice of­fi­cer came to­wards the front door. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Thomp­son recog­nised one of the men, who told her through an in­ter­com he came to drop off some doc­u­ments. Both men were al­lowed en­try through two doors. One of the men whipped out a gun and an­nounced a hold-up. Thomp­son was beat­en and tied up.

The sus­pects then stole 15 guns from a steel box which was un­der a counter. The sus­pects, who drove down Al­fre­do Street, a one-way street, are be­lieved to have made their es­cape in a blue Hyundai mo­tor­car, with reg­is­tra­tion PBH 1545. The ve­hi­cle and the men were seen out­side the se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­ny around 10:30 in the morn­ing. As word about the in­ci­dent reached the Po­lice Com­mand Cen­tre in St James, scores of heav­i­ly-armed of­fi­cers from the In­ter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emer­gency Branch, Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion Task Force, Or­gan­ised Crime, Nar­cotics and Firearms Bu­reau, Crim­i­nal In­tel­li­gence Unit, Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions Di­vi­sion and the Re­peat Of­fend­ers Pro­gramme rushed to the scene. Sev­er­al res­i­dents in the area have ex­pressed shock over the in­ci­dent.