Off-duty cop shoots homeless man

The incident occurred at midday.

A clerk who did not wish to be named, recalled the ordeal to Newsday, saying she felt that her safety was at risk when the scruffy-looking man entered the store.

The clerk said she was at the back of the store when she noticed a tall man standing in the doorway. She called out to a co-worker, but that person did not answer. As she went to the front of the store, the clerk said she saw her colleague cowering in a corner. “I grabbed a chair and let him have it,” the clerk said.

“I hit him about two or three times with a metal folding chair but then he grabbed it and we started to scramble. Just then, I saw a police officer standing outside the store. My co-worker and I ran to the back of the store and jammed it with a table so he couldn’t open it,” the clerk said.

She added that while peeping through a crack in the door, she saw the man outside the store on the pavement. He quickly ran back into the store and slammed the door. The clerk said the man then stepped outside and confronted the police officer.

He was seen gesturing to the police officer and then he tried to snatch his gun. A scuffle ensued and the man was shot three times.

He ran a short distance before falling in the drain outside City Hall.

He was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where up to press time reports that he had died could not be confirmed. Investigations are ongoing.