RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hor­ror gripped shop­pers and mo­torists as five armed men opened fire on three se­cu­ri­ty guards, killing two of them as they left Pen­ny­wise Plaza in La Ro­maine on Mon­day af­ter­noon.

But with­in two hours, the four sus­pect­ed rob­bers were all shot dead un­der a house at Pond Street, La Ro­maine. Po­lice re­cov­ered three AR-15s and a pis­tol be­lieved to have been used in the mur­ders of the guards. One of the rob­bery sus­pects re­mained on the run last night and the po­lice he­li­copter was called in to as­sist in the search.

Of­fi­cers Jef­frey Pe­ters, 51 and Jer­ry Stew­art, 49, worked at Al­lied Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices. Pe­ters died in­stant­ly af­ter be­ing shot around 5 pm, short­ly af­ter he drove out of the Pen­ny­wise com­pound with a large sum of cash. Stew­art died on his way to the hos­pi­tal. A third guard, Pe­o­la Bap­tiste, was shot in the head. She re­mains ward­ed in crit­i­cal con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said the guards went to Pen­ny­wise Plaza at South Trunk Road to pick up a large sum of cash. They had just ex­it­ed the com­pound when the rob­bers opened fire on them af­ter com­ing out of a ve­hi­cle fac­ing them on the main road­way. The bul­lets pierced the win­dows, hit­ting Jef­frey in the dri­ver's seat. Bap­tiste and Stew­art were al­so hit and the four ban­dits snatched two bags filled with cash and got in­to their wait­ing get­away ve­hi­cle. Dur­ing the heist, one of the rob­bers dropped his AR-15 weapon.

Stew­art could be seen slumped down­wards in the pick-up bleed­ing pro­fuse­ly, while hor­ri­fied shop­pers and store clerks looked on. The road was lit­tered with spent AR-15 shells.

In­sp Ali, from Al­lied Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices, ar­rived a short while lat­er and went past the cau­tion tape. But the po­lice stopped him and spoke to him in an­oth­er area. Vis­i­bly dis­traught and al­most on the brink of tears, Ali stood watch­ing the van where Pe­ters' body lay. The in­jured of­fi­cers were rushed by am­bu­lance to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Their friends and col­leagues prayed at the scene for their re­cov­ery.

But by 7 pm, news came that the back­seat se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, Stew­art, had suc­cumbed to his gun­shot wounds. Bap­tiste was said to be crit­i­cal.

Mean­while, po­lice pur­sued the ban­dits for two hours, set­ting up a drag­net and in­ter­cept­ing ve­hi­cles. A Nis­san Syl­phy be­lieved to have been used in the rob­bery was found aban­doned near the T&T Reg­i­ment army base in La Ro­maine.

A source told po­lice that the ban­dits sub­se­quent­ly hi­jacked a white X-trail and went to La Ro­maine to hide. They took a short­cut through the Junes De­vel­op­ment to get to Pond Street, where they at­tempt­ed to elude cap­ture. But of­fi­cers, led by Se­nior Supt Richard Smith, cor­nered the men un­der a house at Pond Street. A shootout oc­curred, dur­ing which time all four sus­pects were shot dead.

Their iden­ti­ties have not yet been con­firmed.

Video of the rob­bery out­side Pen­ny­wise, the six sus­pects ditch­ing their first get­away ve­hi­cle and the shootout with po­lice on the prop­er­ty soon sur­faced on so­cial me­dia.

Last night, a di­rec­tor at Al­lied Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies of the dead se­cu­ri­ty guards.

"Our hearts and con­do­lences go out to our loved ones. This is the re­al­i­ty. Crime is on the rise, we all have to be ex­tra vig­i­lant," he said.

Speak­ing about Jef­frey and his team, the di­rec­tor said: "These guys are awe­some in­di­vid­u­als, but the loss of life is a hard thing to swal­low. We want to ex­tend our con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies."

Pen­ny­wise al­so is­sued a com­ment last night, say­ing the La Ro­maine Plaza would re­main closed as a sign of re­spect so that staff can get some time to fo­cus on their men­tal health.

"To­day, armed ban­dits at­tacked three se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers that were dri­ving out of our La Ro­maine com­pound. The board of di­rec­tors, man­age­ment and staff would like to ex­tend our sin­cer­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­lies of the vic­tims," the state­ment read.

Last night, act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc Don­ald Ja­cob con­firmed that four of six rob­bery sus­pects were killed. He said the ban­dits had been tracked us­ing the po­lice grid sys­tem.

"Through the grid sys­tem, they (po­lice) fol­lowed the ve­hi­cle which was aban­doned. They (sus­pects) then robbed some­one else of their ve­hi­cle and en­tered a house in La Ro­maine where four of the as­sailants were killed by the po­lice," Ja­cob said.

He re­vealed that three AR-15s and one pis­tol were re­cov­ered from the scene of the crime.

"The mat­ter is an ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion that is go­ing on in the South," he added.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on the shoot­ing can call Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS.