Wounded Venezuelan woman freed of gun charges

A 21-year-old Venezuelan woman who was wounded in an alleged shoot-out with police in March yesterday walked out of the Port of Spain Magistrates Court yesterday a free woman. The charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition laid against her were dismissed.

It was determined that the prosecution did not present any evidence against law student, Monica Jerez-Gonzales.

The dismissal was the final chapter in an ordeal that began at the end of May, when Jerez-Gonzales was caught in a shoot-out with police, after her friend, Marco Antonio Gonzales broke through a roadblock in Diego Martin.

At about 11.30 pm that day, police were responding to an all-points bulletin about a black Toyota Yaris whose occupants failed to comply when police stopped them at the roadblock.

Police said they intercepted the car near St Lucien Road, and were shot at as they approached it.

They returned fire, killing Gonzales, and wounding Jerez-Gonzales.