Suspect in gas station robbery shot dead by cops

Minutes after four men held up the cashier at Mitchell’s Gas Station on Saddle Road, Maraval on Thursday night and escaped with $2,400 in cash, a man identified as a Malabar father of two was shot dead. Police officers claimed that they pursued a car driven by Marvin McPherson along Saddle Road, Maraval, where McPherson fired one shot at the police who returned fire.

They claimed that the injured McPherson was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. None of the stolen cash was recovered, but police officers claimed that they recovered a .38 revolver and seized a car belonging to McPherson. An autospy carried out yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre revealed that death was due to shock and haemorrhage consistent with one gunshot wound. At the Malabar home of the deceased, his grieving mother Margaret insisted that the police were mistaken when they shot and killed her son. As tears streamed down her face, the angry woman said that her son was employed as a security guard with the Bureau of Standards, and was respected by residents of Malabar and those who knew him.

She claimed that her son left home on Thursday night and told his wife that he would be back later. She claimed that around 3 am yesterday, police officers came to her home and showed her the driver’s permit belonging to her son. She said that they informed her that Marvin was shot dead in a shootout with the police. “My son was no bandit. I am sure that he did go to Maraval to drop someone, but he was not a criminal, and the police are mistaken.” She added that the circumstances in which her son was shot dead is questionable, and she intends to call on the Ag Commissioner Everald Snaggs to have the matter thoroughly investigated. The deceased was the father of a seven-month-old baby girl and a 10-year-old son. According to relatives, he started working as a guard with Bureau of Standards three years ago and was respected. “His supervisor called me this morning and said that he could not believe that Marvin was killed,” said the grieving mother.