Prisoners fail in escape bid

TWO remanded prisoners facing charges in connection with the robbery of the Couva branch of First Citizens Bank, in which a senior policeman was shot and wounded, made a daring escape from an Amalgamated Security prisoners’ van yesterday. However, freedom for prisoners Azucar Moyo, 20, of Marabella and Derrick Salina, 20, of Enterprise, Chaguanas, was short-lived, as they were recaptured a short while after their escape. According to reports, at around 9.05 am, while prisoners were being off-loaded from the Amalgamated Security van for attendance at the Couva Magistrates’ Court, Moyo and Salina who were handcuffed together, struck a policeman and bolted.

However, a policeman attached to the Maraval Police Station, who was proceeding towards the Court, noticed the handcuffed prisoners running towards him with other officers in hot pursuit. The Maraval policeman, in attempting to thwart the fleeing prisoners, was beaten and almost stabbed with a homemade knife, which police believe was made either at Remand Yard in Golden Grove, or in the holding cells of a courthouse. Both prisoners were subsequently overpowered by the officers and taken back to the Couva Magistrates’ Court, where they were slapped with five new charges — escaping lawful custody, larceny of a handcuff, possession of a weapon and two counts of assaulting a policeman. Both men are expected to appear before a Couva magistrate today to answer  the new charges as well as the ones stemming from the bank heist. Investigations are being headed by Cpl Daniel Pancham and PC Latiff Khan of the Couva Police Station.