Serial burglar dies in escape bid

In a desperate bid to escape police after being cornered inside a scaffolding company at Claxton Bay, a burglar ran through a concrete fibre wall crashing 20 feet to the ground. With shots firing after him, the bleeding bandit, still holding tight to a bag containing stolen tools, scaled a six-foot wall and escaped in some bushes where he collapsed and died. Fiver hours later, around 6 am yesterday, police found the bloody body of 23-year-old Kevin Joey Francis, of Dolly Street, Marabella, near a river about 300 feet at the back of the business place — Scaffolding Manufacturer’s Trinidad Ltd (SMTL) at Plaisance Park, St Margarets Village.

Clad only in  jeans and boots, the body bore a wound to the chest and leg. The dead man was sporting gold rings on three fingers and a watch. Lawmen are not certain whether Francis died as a result of a bullet or the 20-foot fall. A bag containing hacksaw blades, drilling bits and a screw driver, was found near his body. Describing Francis as a “serial burglar,” police said Francis, a father of one, was a temporary worker at the scaffolding company about five years ago. Investigators said Francis, who served three years in jail for a robbery at Trinidad Cement Ltd, is believed to have been behind several recent break-ins at SMTL. The most recent being three weeks ago where $10,000 was taken from a vault.

The drama unfolded around one am yesterday when a security guard on duty at neighbouring company, Chemplast Ltd, heard a noise at SMTL and called the St Margarets Police Station. Two policemen, PCs Mohammed and Deodath, responded and spotted the burglar slipping through a narrow window at the businessplace. The police called for back-up and subsequently surrounded the businessplace. When Francis was cornered in an office upstairs the business place, he reportedly attacked the police with a knife. The police then fired a shot at him. At this point the burglar crashed through the back wall of the building and made his escape. The police combed the immediate area but did not find him. At dawn the investigators followed a trail of blood which led them to Francis’ body.

A District Medical Officer viewed the body and ordered its removal to the Forensic Sciences Centre, St James where an autopsy on Tuesday will determine the cause of death. SMTL’s Manager, Phillip Archie, praised the police for their prompt response. “Every time he broke in we tried to put another security measure in place but he keeps finding other ways of getting in,” Archie said. Last Monday, he said, a security guard on duty at Central Concrete Ltd, located next door, saw a man fitting the dead man’s description trying to remove a safe from inside CCL’s building. The guard, he added, made an alarm and the burglar ran off.

Neither denying nor admitting that Francis was involved in illegal activities, his mother-in-law, Sharon Wildman, sobbed:  “They (police) could ah hold him, they did not have to shoot him.” She said Francis left home around 6 pm on Friday saying that he was going by a relative’s house. Francis common-law-wife Mikeba Wildman, 21, and their two-year-old daughter, Shinique, were not at home when Sunday Newsday visited. Sgt Ramnath of the Marabella Police Station is spearheading  investigations.