Man shot during attempted robbery in Tobago

Prior to this, Acting Commissioner of Police, Tobago Division, Garfield Moore,- expressed grave concerns with regards to the increase of illegal firearms coming to the island, during a town meeting on Tuesday night. The following day, at about 9pm, a man only identified as Kersen was called out his Les Coteaux home by unknown men when he felt a burning sensation in the legs. Reports state the victim was shot twice and has since been hospitalised in a stable condition.

Eighteen hours later there was another report of a robbery with the use of a firearm.

Police reports indicate two men,one armed with a firearm, entered Kerr’s Jewelers at, Brunette Hill, uptown Scarborough and announced a hold-up.

A struggle ensued between owner Denny Jones and the robbers leading to Jones jumping out the window of the two-storey building in an attempt to escape.

Police responded and locked down the area in search for the suspects who escaped on foot.

Police presence was increased from uptown Scarborough Market Square to the bottom of Burnette Hill, where the incident transpired.

Traffic also had to be temporarily diverted after the attempted robbery.

When Newsday Tobago visited the scene minutes after the incident occurred, Jones was seen groaning in pain. He injured his left knee and had minor cuts to the head and right foot sole. Two women, who seemed to be close relatives of Jones made attempts to calm him and dress the wounds as he waited for the ambulance to arrive.

A trail of blood believed to be from the suspects was seen in front of Courts Appliance and furniture store meters away from the scene. Also, a pair of black Nike slippers was also left behind.

Many passers-by were startled to learn about a robbery and “possible” shooting taking place in the capital of Tobago in broad daylight.

One elderly woman exclaimed, “What going on in Tobago here, people don’t care again!” In his feature speech, at the first town meeting for the year in Whim, ACP Moore made reference to the islands’ second murder victim of Dale (Redman) Bousher of Plymouth, who was shot in the head and the recent shootings in Crown Point and Signal Hill, last month. He said the public’s support is urgently needed to curb the steadily increasing crime situation on the island. “We have developed a trend between 2014 to 2016 where crime in Tobago has been increasing; violent crimes in particular. In light of this, we went to all communities last year to make a call to help us get rid of firearms we had very little success.” He admitted the Tobago Division is aware of the firearms issue.

“In light of this, we went to all communities last year to make a call to help us get rid of firearms.We had very little success. In fact, I was embarrassed in Trinidad and out of all the divisions in the entire police service, we would have only recovered 12 guns last year.In Trinidad they recovered 60, 92,159… We know Tobago has plenty guns and we have been saying it but the police cannot do it alone.” He added.

When contacted to verify information on the incidents, yesterday evening, ACP, Moore explained he and most of the senior officers from the Tobago Division, including Acting Senior Superintendent Joanne Archie were presently in Trinidad at the time, so he was unable to provide information from police report on what occurred