One of the two sus­pects held for the at­tempt­ed mur­der of a prison of­fi­cer Govin­dra Bal­go­b­in has been re­leased. Po­lice said the man had to be re­leased as in­ves­ti­ga­tors “haven’t reached any ev­i­den­tial thresh­old to go any fur­ther.”

The sec­ond sus­pect, who was in­jured when the get­away ve­hi­cle crashed, re­mains ward­ed in very se­ri­ous con­di­tion at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex.

A third man, who was seen walk­ing away from the ac­ci­dent has been iden­ti­fied and in­ves­ti­ga­tors say an ar­rest is im­mi­nent.

Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) Lester Lo­gie said Bal­go­b­in re­cent­ly re­ceived a blood do­na­tion and re­mains ward­ed at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex in se­ri­ous con­di­tion.

Bal­go­b­in, 38, was am­bushed and shot by gun­men who pulled along­side him in a Nis­san Wingroad along Or­ange Grove Road around 8.25 pm on June 20.

Po­lice are work­ing on the the­o­ry that the at­tack was linked to an in­ci­dent at the Port-of-Spain Prison. Prison of­fi­cials said a fe­male rel­a­tive of an in­mate at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, where Bal­go­b­in is sta­tioned, had an al­ter­ca­tion with an of­fi­cer and her vis­it was can­celled.

Fol­low­ing the shoot­ing, act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Car­los Cor­raspe said it was a di­rect at­tack on the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

Pres­i­dent of the POA Ger­ard Gor­don said: “Prison Of­fi­cers are un­der at­tack—and not just by crim­i­nals, but by the si­lence, in­ac­tion, and de­lay of those elect­ed to pro­tect and lead.

“The as­so­ci­a­tion has tak­en the State to court over the is­sue of safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, a mat­ter that has dragged on for near­ly a decade. And yet, even as of­fi­cers are gunned down, hunt­ed and ter­rorised, no mean­ing­ful change has been im­ple­ment­ed.”