15 chopped, 1 man dead after attempted robbery

An Asian man is dead after he and six others had to defend themselves against a gang of cutlass-wielding bandits at a house above a supermarket on the Eastern Main Road early on Sunday morning.

All fifteen people involved in the brawl were wounded and taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex but the Asian man died as a result of chop and stab wounds.

Police said, at about 3.45 am on Sunday, eight bandits – six TT nationals, including two women, and two Venezuelan nationals who were all armed with cutlasses and knives – stormed the house above the Happiness Supermarket, occupied by seven Asians who were the proprietors of the business. They announced a robbery and demanded cash and valuables of the Asian owners, but the seven resisted and a brawl broke out.

During the brawl all 15 people suffered chop and stab wounds.

Police got calls about the incident and officers of Morvant and Barataria Police stations, as well as the Emergency Response Patrol responded. Footage shared on social media captured the police officers breaching the premises early on Sunday morning.

When they got into the house they found all 15 people suffering from chop and stab wounds and treated them. The would-be bandits were detained after their treatment and taken to various stations in the North Eastern and Northern Divisions.

Sen Supt Phillip, Asp Douglas, Inspector Ramsingh Sgt Stanisclaus all visited the scene. The Asian man’s body is expected to be transported to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where an autopsy is to be done.

This is not the first time the supermarket was attacked by bandits. In April 2015, then owner Ji Hong Huang was walking out of the supermarket carrying a box with an estimated $800,000 in cash when he was attacked by two men who wrestled him to the ground in an attempt to snatch the box. During the struggle Huang was shot in the stomach. The men snatched a quantity of cash from the box then ran off, and shortly after two women ran up and rummaged through the box and stole what was left.

Huang died from the gunshot wound. The entire incident was caught on CCTV.

Two men involved in the robbery and murder were killed in a shoot-out later that month, and a third man, of La Canoa Santa Cruz was arrested in 2019 by officers of the Special Operations Response Team and officers of the Homicide Bureau.