Seven prison officers, including an assistant superintendent, are all expected to be charged in connection with last Friday’s daring prison break.
The T&T Guardian was told that the police, having compiled significant information implicating them in the matter, are preparing a file to take to the Director of Public Prosecutions today and once instructions given the officers will be charged with a series of offenses.
It is believed that the senior prison officer was one of the masterminds in the prison break, in which prisoners Allan ‘Scanny’ Martin, Hassan Atwell and Christopher ‘Monster’ Selby shot their way to freedom at the Port-of-Spain Prison located on upper Frederick Street, killing police officer Sherman Maynard in the process.
The officers were identified during a fact finding exercise headed by investigating officer DCP Glen Hackett. It is understood that Hackett took the information compiled to Ministry of National Security and Justice Ministry officials on Thursday and recommended a certain course of action.
When contacted last evening for comment, president of the Prisons Officers’ Association (POA) Ceron Richards would only say that he too had heard that several officers are to be charged, but said he could not confirm the information.
Pressed further he refused to comment and referred the T&T Guardian to the Commissioner of Prisons Sterling Stewart.
Efforts to contact Stewart were unsuccessful last night as he did not answer his cellphone.
But a source at the TT Prisons Service said Stewart has already given an indication that he will suspend any officer believed to be involved in the prison break incident. Last week Friday at about 12.30 pm, Martin, Atwell and Selby pointed guns at prison officers on duty at the front doorway entrance to the prison.
Martin then got the keys to the front gate, which he opened for them to run out onto Frederick Street.
PC Maynard, who was doing sentry duty in a police vehicle in front the prison, was shot twice as the escapees targeted him in the front passenger seat. Two of his colleagues escaped injury. He subsequently died while undergoing emergency surgery at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Martin was later shot dead by police in a guard booth on the hospital's compound.
Atwell and Selby escaped but Atwell was gunned down on Saturday night at East Dry River, Port-of-Spain. On Sunday, Selby surrendered at the Barataria Police Station.