A man police described once as one of the most wanted men in Trinidad and Tobago and a known gangster was shot and killed by police yesterday morning in a shootout in the Morvant area.
Investigators have identified the dead man as Nigel “Dufu” Mayers, 40 of Redwood Street, Morvant.
Senior police sources told Guardian Media that a team of officers from the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) went to Mayers home shortly after 6:30 am to execute a search warrant.
When the officers arrived they say Mayer,s who was armed with an AK-47 rifle, opened fire on them.
The officers and other people nearby on the road scampered for cover. Police later returned fire injuring Mayers.
When police advanced on the wounded man, they found a hand grenade still clutched in his hand.
Mayers was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was later pronounced dead on arrival.
The Bomb Squad was called in to sweep for other explosive devices in and around Mayers’ home.
Mayers and several other men were freed last year of killing shopkeeper Shirley Thomas on November 9, 2010.
The exercise was coordinated by Snr Supt Phillip of the North Eastern Division and DCP Jayson Forde and also included Sgt Mark Hernandez of SORT and Sgt Metivier.
On December 1 2010, Mayers and another man, Nick Julien Noreiga were taken before a Port-of-Spain magistrate charged with the murder of Thomas.
Thomas, 49, a mother of two, died in her shop when gunmen alighted from a vehicle and opened fire close to her businessplace on November 9 2010.
Two others also were wounded during the gunplay.
They were also accused of shooting Michelle John with the intent to murder her, as well as shooting at Jamaican national Jason Umbrigo.
On January 17, 2010 Mayers told the T&T Guardian that after he was shot several times by the police in Tobago, an attempt was made at the hospital to kill him by removing his oxygen mask.
Mayers back then sued the Attorney General, seeking damages for the shooting which occurred at Mount Marie, Tobago, on October 10, 2004.
In that incident, Mayers’ associate, Dexter Bernard, was shot and killed by the police. His civil suit started in January 2010 before Justice Amrika Tiwary-Reddy in the Port-of-Spain High Court.
In June 2017, Mayers was part of a group of murder accused that nearly rioted at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on learning that their nearly completed matters may have to re-start.
Some of the accused back then had already spent over five years awaiting adjudication.
