De­spite try­ing to fight off an as­sailant who at­tacked him ear­ly Sat­ur­day morn­ing in Mara­bel­la, a 42-year-old man was un­able to pre­vent the thief from es­cap­ing with jew­ellery val­ued at $70,000.

The vic­tim was walk­ing to­wards his van, which was parked in front of Faiz Meat Shop along Mar­ket Street around 11.15 am, when he was ap­proached by a man wear­ing a black cap.

The as­sailant grabbed his neck and snatched three gold chains and two pen­dants. They scuf­fled, but the sus­pect man­aged to break free and run off.

Mara­bel­la po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

In an­oth­er in­ci­dent, a dri­ver in Pe­nal was shot.

What be­gan as a ca­su­al late-night dri­ve with his moth­er and a fam­i­ly friend near­ly turned fa­tal for a Pe­nal man when a bul­let pierced his car door and struck him in the back.

The 29-year-old drove him­self to a health fa­cil­i­ty for treat­ment.

Ini­tial po­lice in­for­ma­tion said that around 11.10 pm on Sat­ur­day he was dri­ving a white Nis­san Ti­i­da along Sun­rees Road Ex­ten­sion, Pe­nal. Sec­onds af­ter two ex­plo­sions rang out, the vic­tim felt a burn­ing sen­sa­tion in his up­per back. He sub­se­quent­ly drove to the Siparia Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where he was at­tend­ed to and then trans­ferred to the Point Fortin Area Hos­pi­tal for fur­ther treat­ment.

Po­lice said the bul­let pierced the right rear door and pen­e­trat­ed the dri­ver’s seat. Pe­nal po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mat­ter.

Po­lice re­turned to the scene, but their in­quiries did not re­veal any in­for­ma­tion that could as­sist them in de­ter­min­ing where the bul­let came from or who fired it. Pe­nal po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the mat­ter.