[UPDATED] Acting CoP: Quarantine left police patrols scarce in San Fernando as jewellery store employee gunned down

Acting CoP Mc Donald Jacob said officers under quarantine for covid19 exposure led to an absence of police patrols in the main commercial centre of San Fernando on Saturday morning where a jewellery store was robbed and an employee shot dead.

In a telephone interview, Jacob said the police crime-fighting plan was taking a serious beating from covid 19.

“We are getting a serious lash from covid,” he told the Newsday in a brief phone interview.

“What I understand is that there were not adequate foot patrols. There are 22 persons in San Fernando on quarantine and relevant adjustments were not made quickly enough to ensure they (police) maintain the presence that is normally maintained.”

Jacob said he went to the scene and spoke to the commander about it and also about the input of the municipal police to maintain greater coordination.

He said with the use of mobile patrols and CCTV footage they were able to institute a lockdown in several areas resulting in the interception of the getaway vehicle in La Romaine.

One occupant of the vehicle was arrested and the search continues for the others who were dropped off before the vehicle was intercepted.

Also commenting on the crime, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds appealed to citizens to share with the police or law enforcement agency, knowledge of any “miscreant in your community who is possessed of a gun.

‘You can’t have a gunman if you don’t have a gun,” Hinds said at a PNM meeting in Laventille on Saturday.

Hinds said he had seen a video of the San Fernando incident.

"I don't patrol. I wish the police would catch the perpetrators now."

The police came under fire from San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello, Greater San Fernando Chamber president Kiran Singh and shoppers who witnessed the shooting and assembled around the body of Andy Alberto Macias Hosein, 33, outside Ketan Jewellers where he was employed.

Singh who was in his business place on High Street said he had to call senior police officers to inform them of the robbery and murder before a team was deployed some 30 minutes later.

He said before that he drove around the city for about 90 minutes and could not find any officers on patrol.

The San Fernando police station is a stone’s throw from where the shooting took place.

Around 10.30 am, four bandits stormed the jewellery store on upper High Street and began smashing the showcases with hammers. It is not the first time this jewellery store has been robbed.

The gunmen told staff and shoppers to remain calm and no one would get hurt. Hosein who was standing by the doorway and was ushered in the store by one of the bandits, panicked and tried to run away. He was shot in the back and fell to the pavement, dying moments later.

As Hosein’s body, clad in a blue jersey and denim, lay on the pavement, outside the store’s entrance, the bandits smashed the glass showcase with a hammer, grabbing handfuls of jewellery that they stuffed in their pockets.

The four men later escaped through the nearby Carlton Centre to a waiting car on St James Street. Jacob told Newsday the vehicle was later intercepted and the driver, who is from La Romaine, was arrested. He is assisting the police in their investigations as they search for his partners in crime.

The mid-morning shopping came to a standstill as shots rang out, causing shoppers to gather around the body and call for an ambulance. But it was undertakers who finally removed the body close to mid-day.

Both Regrello and Singh were on the scene and spoke to the media about the infiltration of criminals in the commercial centre of San Fernando.

Acknowledging the absence of the police who took a long time to report to the crime scene, Regrello said, “the police have to be a little more vigilant.

“They have to understand the terrain, for instance, Carlton Centre is an exit point, a getaway point. Bandits in the past have parked vehicles on St James Street, run through Carlton Centre, do their work on High Street and run back there.

“Police cannot say they are unaware of that. There is enough evidence out there to certify that.’

Singh noted that this is not the first time Ketan has been robbed. He said several jewellery stores, including RT Jewellery where a security guard was shot some time ago, also fell victim to bandits.

“This is real craziness. Crime, unfortunately, is getting worse. San Fernando used to be a very safe city. Within the last two weeks this has changed with the violent double murders at South Park and the murder of a young mother leaving her home to go to work peacefully – shot to death in her car. As citizens, we have to be more mindful of our whereabouts, but we also need to provide some guidance to the youths because obviously, they have no respect for life and liberty of individuals who go about their daily lives, peacefully and legitimately earning a living.”

The men who carried out the robbery and murder appeared to be young men, Singh said.

Calling for a greater police presence as businesses feel unsafe, he said this incident comes at a time when businesses and individuals have been crippled financially and emotionally by the pandemic.

“We want to mend that and the only way to do that is to have confidence that customers can walk about freely to do their shopping.”

Singh said while no one apart from Hosein was injured but staff and customers were “shaking with fright."

“They need some sort of psychological therapy, some sort of counselling because it is not an easy thing to come to terms with seeing a man shot in broad daylight, in front of your eyes, especially if that man was your friend, colleague for a long time.

“My heart goes out to the family of this young man who now has to bear this sorrowful experience.

This story was updated with additional details. Below is the original story first published under the headline Jewellery store employee gunned down in San Fernando.

SATURDAY morning shopping on upper High Street, San Fernando came to a standstill as four bandits robbed a jewellery store, killing an employee on the compound.

Andy Alberto Macias Hosein, 33, who has dual Venezuelan and Trinidadian citizenship, was shot in the back as he tried to escape when the bandits entered Ketan Jewellers and announced a hold-up at about 10.30 am.

The gunmen told staff and shoppers to remain calm and no one would get hurt. Hosein who was standing by the doorway, panicked and tried to escape. Shots were fired as he retreated and fell to the pavement on his back, dying almost instantly.

As Hosein’s body, clad in a blue jersey and denim, lay on the pavement, the bandits smashed the glass showcase with implements they brought, grabbing handfuls of jewellery which they stuffed in their pockets.

The four men later escaped through the nearby Carlton Centre. Reports are that a car in which they escaped was found abandoned.

Shoppers gathered around Hosein, with some heard asking others to call the ambulance and the police. They complained that the police were tardy in their response, coming long after the body began getting cold and so too the trail of the bandits.

Both San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello and president of the Greater San Fernando Chamber Kiran Singh were on the scene, lamenting the state of crime in the country.

This is the third murder in San Fernando within the last week.

Recently two men were shot and killed while they sat in a vehicle at South Park Mall in broad daylight.

On Wednesday morning, Salina Mohammed, 40, was shot near her home at Green Acres, San Fernando, as she made her way to work in her Nissan Wingroad.

This story will be updated.