Retired cop on 2015 jailbreak: Reality check on dangers of policing

Sherman Maynard would have been 32 this year had he survived a shooting outside the Port of Spain Remand Yard in 2015.

Maynard, a police officer, was assigned as part of a stationary or “static” patrol on Frederick Street as an additional measure against an impending threat at the prison.

He was shot and killed on July 24 when inmates Hassan Atwell, Christopher “Monster” Selby and Allan “Scanny” Martin shot their way out of the jail.

Hours after they escaped, Martin was shot dead by police when he tried to hold a security guard hostage in a guard booth at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Two days later Atwell was shot dead in east Port of Spain. Selby surrendered to police in Barataria.

Today, five years later, questions on how the inmates got the pistol used in the escape remain unanswered and Maynard’s cousin, retired superintendent  Johnny Abraham, said more should have been done to prevent the proliferation of contraband in the prisons.

“Where are the proper checks and balances? It starts from the courts, where prisoners go to court and they come back to the prisons with all kinds of contraband.

“That could have been avoided once they had proper security protocols at the prison. In a modern day and age like this, you mean to tell me there aren’t any scanners at the prison? We’re too backward. There are places, like Mexico, that have scanners at the side of the road that are so sensitive they can pick up something as small as a pin.

“What should have happened is: you check them when they come into court, check them when they’re leaving court, check them before they get onto the prison van. And that is why one of the best things they have done was to put the courthouses in the prison to avoid them from bringing in contraband.”

Abraham, who gained a reputation as an ace crime-fighter in the Central Division, said while Maynard’s death was a blow to the family, he accepted it as a reality of being a police officer.

“Thank God I came out of the police service unscathed. But, unfortunately, people die in the execution of their duties.

“I have seen so many homicides and investigated so many deaths that I’ve become immune to it. Sometimes when a family member dies I don’t feel anyhow. That’s why police officers who are involved in shootings should be given counselling and so on.”

Newsday also contacted ret Brig Gen Carl Alfonso, who was the National Security Minister at the time.

Alfonso said he was called away from a meeting in St Paul Street, Port of Spain, that Friday afternoon when he heard about the prison break.

He said while he is no longer active in the Ministry of National Security or the regiment, he is cautiously confident of the security forces' avoiding a repeat of the incident.

“I dont want to feel overconfident, because that would be silly, but I certainly feel more confident than I did in 2015 when that occurred. Intelligence agencies have spruced up their capabilities and the police commissioner is certainly getting his finger into everything, trying to do as best a job as possible.

“They have challenges, as we all know, but the police are better equipped, the army is better equipped and I am certain the prison service is better equipped as well.”