Police kill Gasparillo man

POLICE believe they halted a major gun transaction and possible robberies when they shot and killed a 30-year-old Gasparillo man on Saturday afternoon. Duane Clarke, of Bonne Aventure, was shot outside his home in a sting operation spearheaded by the Firearms Interdiction Unit (FIU) of the Police Service. According to reports, around 5:30 pm a party of undercover cops in plainclothes pulled up in an unmarked vehicle and confronted Clarke outside his home. The police reports stated that when Clarke was asked about certain activities he was allegedly involved in relating to gun manufacturing, he whipped out a revolver from his waist and there was a shootout.

Clarke was shot in the left side of his chest and was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Neither the nearby Gasparillo police nor officers of Police Headquarters in San Fernando knew anything about the planned FIU raid. Yesterday, a report from Gasparillo Police Station stated that two guns were seized from Clarke. Clarke was recently released from jail where he served six months for possession of guns. He had charges pending in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court for possession of arms and ammunition. On one of the charges, he is accused of possession of a hand grenade. However, Clarke’s wife, Aneyka, 24, yesterday said she witnessed the shooting and told a different story to Newsday about her husband’s death.

She said she was downstairs with their one year-old daughter, Seraiah. When “a car pulled up and a man asked for Clarke. When he came out, this van pulled up and men came out with guns.” Aneyka, who is six months pregnant, told Newsday that she heard gunfire and when she ran out of the yard, Clarke was lying on the ground. The woman complained that since the incident, she has not been officially informed by the police why Clarke was killed. “I went to the Gasparillo station and they showed me two guns they say they found on him. When he walked out of the yard to meet the police, he had nothing on him,” Aneyka said.