Family to view bandits’ bodies

AN ARIMA family, whose relative went missing last Friday, will today be at the Forensic Science Centre in St James today, hoping to identify the body of one of the two men who were shot dead during an attempted robbery in Petit Valley.

On Saturday, the family went to the Sangre Grande Police station and filed a missing person’s report for their relative who is said to be in his 20s. They told police the man was missing since Friday.

Police directed them to officers of the Western Division, where the two men were killed while trying to rob a business man at a tyre store on Morne Coco Road in Petit Valley.

The relatives then visited the funeral home which was keeping the two bodies prior to autopsies to day, but were not allowed to view the bodies.

Instead the relatives were advised to go to the Forensic Science Centre in St James to view the body and confirm whether on not it is that of their missing relative. According to reports, at about 11.30 pm on Friday, three men with bandanas over their faces, one of whom was armed, stormed the tyre shop and announced a hold-up.

They took the owner of the business to a back room and while they were carrying him there, he grabbed the gun from the armed bandit. A scuffle ensued and the firearm discharged twice, hitting two of the three bandits, while the third man ran off.

One of the shot bandits died on the compound while the other stumbled out into the street and fell dead in the roadway.

Newsday was told this was not the first time that the business owner had been robbed, bandits had stormed into the business place in November last year and held it up, making off with a quantity of cash. Police sources also told Newsday that they believe the two dead bandits were connected to a rash of robberies in Arima.

Autopsies are expected to be done on the bodies of the two men at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, as soon as both bodies are identified.