A po­lice con­sta­ble man­aged to es­cape se­ri­ous in­jury on Wednes­day night fol­low­ing a shoot­ing in St Ann’s, af­ter a bul­let from a ban­dit pierced his walkie-talkie.

The of­fi­cer was treat­ed at hos­pi­tal and lat­er dis­charged in a sta­ble con­di­tion, al­though he was left nurs­ing bruis­es.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers of the Joint Op­er­a­tions Task Force (JOTF) were on mo­bile pa­trol at 11.05 pm when they re­ceived a re­port that armed men were seen at Fondes Aman­des, St Ann’s.

A par­ty of of­fi­cers, in­clud­ing PCs Mc Al­is­ter and Mar­shall, along with Lance Cor­po­ral George and Pri­vate Orosco re­spond­ed.

Up­on ar­rival, the law­men spot­ted a group of men who ran to­wards a forest­ed area and dis­ap­peared in­to the dark­ness.

As the of­fi­cers chased af­ter the men, one of the sus­pects opened fire on them. PC Mc Al­is­ter, who was wear­ing a bul­let­proof vest with a walkie-talkie at­tached, was hit.

Of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain Task Force and the In­ter-Agency Task Force re­spond­ed and the area was searched but the as­sailants were not found. How­ev­er, a loaded re­volver was re­cov­ered.

PC Mc Al­is­ter was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he was treat­ed for mi­nor bruis­ing on the left side of his tor­so un­der the left rib cage. He was lat­er dis­charged.