Suspended West End cop shot

A police officer on two-years suspension is in critical condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital after being shot while working his taxi. According to reports, PC St John Nurse, 33, of School Street in Diego Martin, was working his Mazda 323 “PH” taxi between Diego Martin and Port-of-Spain at 8.45 pm on Thursday. On reaching Factory Road in Diego Martin, the lone passenger in the backseat locked Nurse’s neck and demanded that he turn into a road near the Four Roads Police Station.

The father of two, who was attached to the West End Police Station, resisted and was shot three times in the back. While the shooter escaped, the injured man was rushed to the PoSGH, where emergency surgery was performed yesterday to remove two bullets. The third bullet is to be removed today. Nurse is now warded at the Intensive Care Unit. When Newsday visited the family home, relatives stated that his common-law wife Venicia Constantine was praying at his bedside..

“All we know is she is at his bedside praying and he has been given a fifty-fifty chance of survival” they said. The relatives also said that around 8.30 pm, Nurse called his wife and said he was coming home. The next thing they heard was he was shot. The relative also said they are not saying much because Nurse’s ten-year-old son had not yet been told of the incident. Family sources also said that from their information, his liver and lungs have been damaged. Nurse had been suspended for the past two years. Cpl Marcelle  is investigating.