Son shot 3 times

THE ALLEGED failure by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) to take seriously the threatened kidnapping of Barataria businessman John Sam Chee led to Sam Chee’s son being shot three times in a melee Tuesday night at the Eastern Main Road, San Juan. The kidnap attempt failed but Sean Sam Chee, 31, was shot three times and police were up to late evening trying to determine if he was shot by his father’s gun, or from the kidnappers’ firearms. Sean is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Centre.  He needs ten pints of AB positive blood.  He was shot in the hand, foot and back.

The family claims to have had a tip-off that an attempt was going to be made to kidnap Sam Chee, 58, owner of Tenth Avenue Drugs, Eastern Main Road, San Juan. As a consequence, Sam Chee’s sister, Mildred, claimed she contacted the AKS on Tuesday. However, acting head of the AKS, ASP Henry Millington told Newsday as far as he knew they weren’t contacted, but that he would check on it. Investigators said a man came to the drugstore Monday night and warned a worker about the kidnap plot. Police sources said the man told the worker that the Sam Chees were good people, and he overheard that Sam Chee was going to be kidnapped.

When contacted, Sam Chee told Newsday his sister called the AKS:   “They told her to go and talk to the police (in the area).  But I heard they (AKS) are only helping bigshot people,” Sam Chee stated. Mildred confirmed yesterday that she called the AKS on Tuesday.  She said she spoke to a male officer, but said she could not remember his name. She said she told the officer of the tip off they received and sought advice. “He told me to contact my area police,” Mildred said, adding the officer also told her that the AKS only help the police if they need help. “My brother did not take on the information, but I took it on, so I called the AKS,” she said.  She added they were going to lodge a  report to the station district just before the attempted kidnapping incident. North Eastern Division officers said they weren’t told of the planned kidnap either by the AKS, or by the businessman. Investigators told Newsday if they had been aware they would have put measures in place to prevent the attempted kidnapping.

“We would have caught them red-handed,” a police source said, adding the people who tried to grab Sam Chee may be working for notorious kidnappers. Reports on the attempted kidnapping are that the elder Sam Chee closed his businessplace around 9.30 pm and was about to leave through a door on the eastern side. Sam Chee was in company with a worker.  As the two were about to leave, police sources said three armed men came out of a red vehicle and approached Sam Chee. On seeing the men, police said Sam Chee tried to run through the gate from where he had left. The worker had already fled the scene. However, the kidnappers grabbed Sam Chee and dragged him to their red vehicle. Police said Sam Chee, whose left elbow was badly bruised, reached for his licenced firearm which he kept in a black pouch. 

The businessman, who had screamed for help, reportedly fired 11 shots, during which time the three men also returned fire. Investigators said Sean heard the melee and came outside from the family’s nearby home on Fourth Street.  He was shot three times. Police sources said Army and police officers under Insp Ancil Coa and Cpl Patrick Thomas of the Morvant CID were on roadblock duty at the time and heard the transmission on the wireless and responded. Sean was taken to the Mount Hope institution, where he remained warded up to late evening.  “They tried to kidnap me, but my son got shot instead.  We were warned about it, but it done happen already,” Sam Chee said from his businessplace.