St Barb's man faces magistrate over D' Food King's home invasion

A 20-year-old man from St Barb's in Laventille is set to appear before a Princes Town magistrate on Tuesday charged in connection with the recent home invasion at the home of the owners of Persad's chain of supermarkets in New Grant.

The suspect was charged with three counts of burglary, one at the home of the Persad family and two separate incidents in the district.

The police held him last Tuesday after an investigation which included ASP Phillip, Insp Ramlogan, Sgts Nanan and Steele, and Cpl Ramkissoon of the Southern Division.

Hours earlier, at around 3 am, six men entered the home of Mohan Persad and his wife, Shirley Persad, both 78, of Sixth Company Road.
They own Persad's D' Food King supermarkets.

The intruders beat the elderly couple, tied their hands with tie straps and covered their faces. They stole money as well as a vault with money, jewellery, and two guns – a Smith and Wesson revolver and a Remington shotgun – with ammunition.

The intruders also stole two cellphones worth about $6,000 and a DVR.

They are believed to have got in by prying open a window, then left through the front door after the robbery.

On Friday, police from the Inter-Agency Task Force received a tip-off and went to a bushy area off Beetham Gardens, where they found the two guns. IATF police handed over the weapons to the Southern Division police.

The mastermind behind the attack on the Persads is said to have been Christopher Noel, who was shot and killed in Palmiste in a confrontation with the police on Friday.

He was a close friend of the suspect from St Barb's.

Noel grew up a stone's throw away from the Persad family.

Noel, also called Blocker, Glocker and Scars, was on bail charged with a murder that happened on December 18, 2009.
In July, a High Court judge granted him $600,000 surety bail with several conditions. He was ordered to report to the Princes Town police station on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He was also ordered to live on King Street, Princes Town.

Investigators learnt Noel had been staying at a hotel in San Fernando.

The court also put Noel under a curfew between 10 am and 5 am. Another bail condition was that he had to surrender his passport.