Manhunt for two robbers

A joint police team of the Crime Suppression Unit, Couva and Chaguanas CID, E-999 mobile patrol, and Anti-Kidnapping Squad was yesterday searching for two male suspects who escaped on foot after the female victim crashed her car to draw the attention of mobile patrol police.

The 50-year-old female taxi-driver told police her ordeal began around 6.20 am while she was plying her taxi from San Fernando to Penal. The men entered her Nissan Almera in San Fernando and upon reaching Penal, pulled out a gun and announced a hold-up. She told police they took her earnings of $81 then ordered her to drive up the Solomon Hochoy Highway. Upon reaching the Preysal flyover, she observed a police mobile patrol on the south-bound lane of the highway. The woman said as she crashed her car to draw the attention of the police, the gunman shot her in her left leg.

Shaken from the crash, the hijackers came out of the wreck and sat on the pavement, while policemen who arrived on the accident scene walked past them. Instead, the cops went to the assistance of the female taxi-driver, who immediately alerted police that the men had hijacked her. By that time, however, the suspects escaped on foot. Police said they later apprehended a male suspect, a 23-year-old man of Central Trinidad.

The arrest of the two other suspects are imminent, police said.

The woman was taken for medical treatment at the San Fernando General Hospital where she is warded in stable condition.

PC James is continuing investigations.