KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

A San Fer­nan­do po­lice of­fi­cer is in crit­i­cal con­di­tion af­ter be­ing shot dur­ing an op­er­a­tion in La Ro­maine late Fri­day night.

PC Alex Koon Koon, of the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment, was wound­ed around 10.50 pm while on du­ty with Sgt Mar­tin and a par­ty of of­fi­cers from the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion. The team had re­spond­ed to a re­port of a man armed with a firearm seat­ed in the gallery of a house in an area along La Plai­sance Road com­mon­ly known as Turn­ing Point.

Ac­cord­ing to a Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) me­dia re­lease, Koon Koon had just ex­it­ed a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle when gun­shots were heard com­ing from the gallery. In the im­me­di­ate af­ter­math, a man was seen run­ning away.

Of­fi­cers lat­er re­alised Koon Koon had been struck. He sus­tained a gun­shot wound to the left side of his ab­domen and was rushed to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where he un­der­went emer­gency surgery. Up to Sat­ur­day, he re­mained in the In­ten­sive Care Unit in crit­i­cal con­di­tion.

Po­lice said ini­tial at­tempts to cap­ture the sus­pect were un­suc­cess­ful. How­ev­er, fol­low­ing sub­se­quent in­ves­ti­ga­tions, three peo­ple, in­clud­ing an 18-year-old man from La Ro­maine, an­oth­er male, and a woman, were de­tained and are as­sist­ing of­fi­cers with their in­ves­ti­ga­tions. In­ves­ti­ga­tors are al­so ac­tive­ly search­ing for the firearm be­lieved to have been used in the shoot­ing.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro vis­it­ed the scene and lat­er the hos­pi­tal, where he spoke with of­fi­cers and Koon Koon’s rel­a­tives.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Op­er­a­tions) Suzette Mar­tin, who is su­per­vis­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, con­demned the at­tack, de­scrib­ing it as a strike against the rule of law and the safe­ty of cit­i­zens.

“When a po­lice of­fi­cer is shot in the line of du­ty, it strikes at the very heart of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and the rule of law we are sworn to up­hold. This is not just an at­tack on the TTPS, but on the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of every law-abid­ing cit­i­zen,” Mar­tin said.

She added that the TTPS would in­ten­si­fy op­er­a­tions and pur­sue all leads, main­tain­ing that of­fi­cers re­main “res­olute, un­wa­ver­ing, and re­lent­less” in bring­ing those re­spon­si­ble to jus­tice.

Mean­while, col­leagues and rel­a­tives have is­sued an ur­gent ap­peal for blood do­na­tions, with Koon Koon said to re­quire sev­er­al pints. He is iden­ti­fied as hav­ing O-pos­i­tive blood type. Mem­bers of the pub­lic will­ing to as­sist have been asked to vis­it the blood bank. The TTPS has al­so ex­tend­ed prayers and best wish­es for Koon Koon’s re­cov­ery as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue.