Fake police kill one man, injure another buying gold in Couva

AN unidentified man is dead and another is wounded after his plans to buy gold in a bushy part of Couva went awry when they were attacked by gunmen dressed as police.

Police said a nurse from the Couva District Health Facility contacted the nearby police station around 3 pm to report a man had been brought in with a gunshot wound to his face.

At the facility, doctors told investigators the 30-year-old man from Battoo Avenue, Marabella also had gunshot wounds to his hands and was sedated in a stable condition awaiting transfer to the San Fernando General Hospital.

The victim told the officers he had gone to the bushy area around 2 pm, to buy gold from a man he did not know, when two armed men with police tactical uniforms and police badges approached them and started shooting.

The victim told police the men got into the gold-seller's vehicle and drove off. Afterwards, he said, he walked out to the main road, where an unknown person took him to the health facility.

Following the victim's directions, the officers went to a remote location off Base Road, Couva Main Road, where they discovered the seller lying in a pool of blood. Police did not find any form of identification on him.

The district medical officer pronounced the man dead and ordered the body removed pending an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.

Crime scene investigators found four spent nine-millimetre shells near the body.

Police are continuing investigations.