Gunmen on weekend shooting spree

SEVERAL children playing in the open yard of their homes at Queen Street, Coffee Beach, La Brea on Saturday morning, miraculously escaped death when four masked gunmen entered the area and began shooting indiscriminately.

The children had to scamper to safety when the shooting began.

Newsday was told that the men who came in search of an elderly man also firebombed three vehicles which were parked in a yard.

Newsday further learnt that the indiscriminate shooting only stopped when some residents, dodging bullets called out to the men pleading with them to stop it. The trigger-happy men who came by boat and landed on Coffee Beach hastily made their escape in the same vessel, but not before injuring residents Gregory Williams and Keon Jackson.

Jackson, the brother of San Fernando attorney Jason Jackson who reports said only recently moved into the area, was shot through the left leg. He was expected to be discharged yesterday from the San Fernando General Hospital. Williams was shot in the leg and hand and remains warded in stable condition at the southen city’s general hospital. Newsday was told that while trying to evade bullets, one of the men was shot and wounded while diving into a boat which was moored near a house.

Player shot while celebrating Seconday School Football League

A 17-year-old student, who was out celebrating his team’s Secondary Schools’ Football League victory over St Benedict’s College, was wounded when a bar patron ran into the road and fired shots wildly into the air yesterday morning.

Police said Nate Brooks, a form five student of Presentation College, San Fernando, is warded in a stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital after undergoing treatment to his abdomen.

According to reports, Brooks, who plays for Presentation, was in the Backseat of his neighbour Adesh Adhar’s car when around 3.30 am, they pulled up at Marshall’s Bar at the corner of Sutton and Cipero Street, San Fernando.

Adhar, 25, went into the bar and on his way back he heard gunshots behind him and realised he had been shot on the forearm. Adhar told police he saw a man firing indiscriminately in the road and he rushed to his vehicle and sped off. He later realised that Brooks was shot in the stomach and he drove to the hospital where they were both treated.

FOUR MEN HELD WITH FIREARM

FOUR men are due to appear before an Arima magistrate on Monday, after police officers of the Northern Division found them with a firearm on Thursday night.

Police officers of the Northern Division conducted anti- crime exercises in the Malabar and Pinto districts between the hours of 8pm on Thursday and 8 am yesterday.

Police arrested 20 persons during the exercise. Six of them were detained for inquiries into investigations, five were arrested for possession of narcotics; four were held on outstanding warrants, and an illegal immigrant was also detained.


In a conversation with Supt Abraham, Newsday was told that the Northern Division has recovered 97 firearms for the year, and would continue to aggressively search for firearms, as police activity will intensify for the Christmas season.

AK 47 rifles, pistols, ammo dug up

THREE high powered weapons, including two AK 47 assault rifles, were found buried in the earth during an exercise conducted by officers of the North Eastern Division Task Force over a ten-hour period. Between the hours of 5.30 am on Monday and 3.30 am yesterday, officers of the North Eastern Division Task Force conducted an exercise in the North Coast, and Maracas Bay areas, where they found several firearms and a quantity of marijuana, totalling about five kilogrammes.

Officers went to Rincon Road off North Coast Road, during the exercise. They had cause to dig up a shallow hole, where they found two AK 47s along with 27 rounds of 7.62 ammunition, two magazines, and another rifle, which make and model was not made known.

Police officers also acted on information received and went to an abandoned lot on the North Coast Road, where they found a .38 special revolver and two rounds of .38 ammo. Police also found a quantity of marijuana. Further along the North Coast Road, police also found a 40 calibre pistol along with two rounds of 40 calibre ammunition, and a quantity of marijuana.

Air Guard member held; gun seized

      

A 23-year-old member of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Air Guard was arrested yesterday morning after he was held with an illegal firearm.
At about 2.30 a.m., a team of officers from the Port of Spain Task Force, under the supervision of Snr Supt Johnny Abraham, with assistance from Supt Rajkumar, Supt Mohammed, Sgt Bharath, Cpl Charles and Cpl Vivek, intercepted a vehicle along Bell Eau Road, Belmont,
The car was searched and the officers found and seized a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol and five rounds of 9mm ammunition.
The man, who identified himself as an Air Guard officer, was taken into custody as he could not produce a firearm user's licence for the weapon.
Further enquiries are to be carried out before the man is charged and brought before the courts.
Speaking to the Express yesterday, Abraham, head of the Port of Spain Division, praised all the officers involved in the exercise and reiterated that his team has initiated and will continue to maintain a “zero tolerance” approach to any crime in their jurisdiction. —Alexander Bruzual