An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Eight men have been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with Tues­day’s rob­bery of a woman in the car park of Adam’s Bagels on Sad­dle Road, Mar­aval.

TTPS pub­lic in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer ASP Owie Rus­sell said yes­ter­day that the sus­pects, rang­ing in ages from 19 to 39, were ar­rest­ed fol­low­ing in­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tions by of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion.

The 56-year-old woman re­port­ed­ly with­drew a large sum of cash from a bank around 3.10 pm on Tues­day be­fore dri­ving to the busi­ness.

As she at­tempt­ed to get back in­to her white Kia Sportage at about 3.37 pm, she was ac­cost­ed by three men of African de­scent, who had been sit­ting in a sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da parked be­side her ve­hi­cle.

The men beat and kicked her about the head and body as they de­mand­ed the cash. She tried to fight them off while hold­ing on to her hand­bag, but they man­aged to take it. The bag con­tained $22,000 in cash, an iPhone 12 and three bank cards.

The sus­pects then got back in­to the wait­ing car, which sped south along Sad­dle Road.

Near­by mem­bers of the pub­lic as­sist­ed the woman. A re­port was made to the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion, and an im­me­di­ate op­er­a­tion was launched.

Of­fi­cers lat­er in­ter­cept­ed a black Hon­da City on Morne Co­co Road, Pe­tit Val­ley, and ar­rest­ed its four male oc­cu­pants. Act­ing on in­for­ma­tion re­ceived, they sub­se­quent­ly ar­rest­ed four oth­er men in con­nec­tion with the rob­bery.

Of­fi­cers al­so went to North Coast Road, op­po­site Mara­cas Bay, where they re­cov­ered the sil­ver Ti­i­da be­lieved to have been used in the rob­bery. The ve­hi­cle was miss­ing its bat­tery. A hand­bag con­tain­ing a purse and pa­per­work iden­ti­fied as the vic­tim’s prop­er­ty was al­so found in­side. Po­lice lat­er towed the ve­hi­cle.

CCTV footage of the rob­bery was post­ed on so­cial me­dia, prompt­ing wide­spread calls for po­lice to pur­sue the sus­pects.

Yes­ter­day’s op­er­a­tion was au­tho­rised by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Williams and co­or­di­nat­ed by Su­per­in­ten­dent Archibald, ASP Bas­ant, In­spec­tor Per­ry and Sergeant Do­minique. Of­fi­cers from the West­ern Di­vi­sion Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit, Port-of-Spain Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit, North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, West End Po­lice Sta­tion and North East­ern Di­vi­sion Crime Scene Unit al­so took part.

Adam’s Bagels is­sued a state­ment on Tues­day af­ter the in­ci­dent, say­ing it would strength­en se­cu­ri­ty at the lo­ca­tion.

“Se­cu­ri­ty will be in­creased im­me­di­ate­ly and through­out the Christ­mas sea­son, with the se­cu­ri­ty sta­tion re­main­ing at­tend­ed at all times,” the state­ment said.

The busi­ness urged the pub­lic to re­main vig­i­lant, say­ing the vic­tim had been fol­lowed to the premis­es.