A police constable was shot after being ambushed by gunmen in Morvant yesterday.
According to reports around 3.15 pm the officer, only identified as PC Smith, was driving a marked police SUV along the Lady Young Road in Morvant when he was stopped by a resident.
The resident allegedly told Smith that he saw two gunmen hiding in some bushes in a road off McKai Lands.
Smith, who is assigned to the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain and has almost five years’ service, got out of his vehicle to investigate and was almost immediately greeted with gunshots.
Smith returned fire with his service pistol but did not hit his attackers, who managed to run away.
Officers of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) responded to the scene and took Smith to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital for treatment.
Smith, who was shot once in his left forearm, was treated and warded yesterday but his injury was described as non-life threatening.
When a news team from the T&T Guardian visited the scene of the shooting, less than an hour after it occurred, almost two-dozen police officers were getting reading to search the area for the suspects.
The search team were in Cascade last night as they tracked the shooters. No arrests had been made up to late yesterday.
In an interview, acting Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Radcliff Boxhill said crime scene investigators were gathering spent shells and other evidence.
Meanwhile, a Maraval man is currently in police custody after he chopped an off-duty police officer.
According to reports around, 10.45 pm on Sunday, Cpl Carl Hosten was the home of a female friend in Paramin, Maraval, when he reportedly got into an argument with the woman.
The woman’s brother intervened and chopped Hosten on the head with a cutlass, police said.
Police later arrested the suspect and seized the weapon. The officers took Hosten to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital for treatment. He was discharged later that night.