There are now conflicting reports surrounding the “heroic” actions of police Insp Kenneth Morgan, who shot dead a bandit during a robbery attempt at a barbershop last Friday.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital yesterday, relatives of Antonio Coelho and Abzab Khan said their loved ones reported to them that Morgan acted hastily and allegedly refused to take their advice not to engage the bandits.
According to police reports, around 12.30 pm two men barged into Specs Cuts Barbershop along La Puerta Road, Diego Martin, coralled the two barbers and five customers, including Morgan, into a back room and demanded tickets for a party that took place on Sunday in Chaguaramas.
One of the barbers said on Friday that Morgan stepped out of the room and engaged the men shortly before there was a shootout. In the end, one of the bandits, Shaquille John, 23, of El Dorado, Tunapuna, was killed, Morgan was shot in the groin, Coelho in the right eye and left leg, Khan in the right arm and stomach, Hassan Ali in the head and Jonathan Vincent was shot in the buttocks.
Ali died on Monday after being on life support since his admission to hospital. Vincent was treated and discharged and the other injured people are still warded at hospital - Morgan at WestShore Medical and the other two men at Port of Spain General Hospital.
The barber, who did not want to be identified, yesterday committed to his original story, adding that before Morgan stepped out of the back room and engaged the bandits, he told everyone to “remain calm and relax.”
In a brief telephone interview yesterday, Vincent said he remained in the main area while one man rummaged through the barbershop looking for loot. He said he kept his hand over his head and his head down and later heard gunshots.
But relatives of Coelho claimed they were told Morgan engaged the bandits from the back room. The relatives said Coelho told them he and Khan were the last two to enter the room and as they were doing so, despite begging Morgan not to shoot at the bandits, he did, and the thieves returned fire, resulting in several of them being shot.
Coelho, 28, of San Diego Park, said he could not remember much of what happened, only that he “saw white and then heard sirens.”
“That was the closest barber to home, and I had to pick up my wife in the area. Usually I does cut my own hair and mark myself too. I don’t know how that will work out now. I not going by no barber again I learn my lesson,” Coehlo, a father of two boys, 13 and six months, joked.
Supporting Coelho’s relatives’ version were relatives of Khan, who was unable to speak when the T&T Guardian visited him. Khan’s relatives said shortly after he arrived at hospital, he relayed what took place and Morgan was not painted in a heroic light.
Relatives of 55-year-old Khan, who lives at Mahogany Trace, Diego Martin, said he had been going to that barbershop for over 10 years. Asked about their thoughts towards Morgan, the relatives said they were only concerned about Khan, who doctors said had a racing heart rate and was receiving oxygen regularly. He is forbidden to speak of the incident, they said, as doctors belive the psychological trauma is affecting him physically.
“He (Morgan) is not a hero,” the relatives said.
The T&T Guardian visited Morgan at WestShore Medical but was told by a female relative that he was sleeping and could not speak. Morgan remains under police guard in hospital.
When questioned about the conflicting reports at the Forensic Science Centre yesterday, relatives of Ali said they did not want to engage in such discussion at the time.
“All I can say is that I feel it, because it was a bandit bullet that take him.”