Po­lice are search­ing for a ban­dit who is be­lieved to be wound­ed, while a 28-year-old man re­mains in cus­tody af­ter a shootout be­tween po­lice and car thieves in Ari­ma on Mon­day night.

Po­lice said the in­ci­dent be­gan when two men stole a woman’s white Hon­da City car from the park­ing lot of KFC, Val­sayn, around 10.50 pm.

The woman re­port­ed­ly strug­gled with the ban­dit but fell on the ground and hit her face on the pas­sen­ger side door as both men drove off.

A re­port was made and a de­scrip­tion of the car was cir­cu­lat­ed via an All Points Bul­letin (APB).

Thir­ty min­utes lat­er, of­fi­cers of the North­ern Di­vi­sion Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol (ERP), saw the car dri­ving east on the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way, near the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go and fol­lowed it.

The ban­dits re­port­ed­ly fired shots at the po­lice and tried to es­cape, but turned on­to Tumpuna Road North, be­fore stop­ping and get­ting out of the car.

The ban­dits re­port­ed­ly shot at the po­lice again, who re­turned fire.

The ban­dits man­aged to es­cape, how­ev­er, po­lice be­lieve one of the sus­pects may have been wound­ed from the shootout.

A San­ta Rosa man, be­lieved to be one of the ban­dits, was ar­rest­ed in Pin­to Road, Ari­ma, short­ly af­ter the shoot­ing and was tak­en to the La Hor­quet­ta Po­lice Sta­tion for ques­tion­ing.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors found eight spent 9 mm shells along the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way and one spent shell on Tumpuna Road North.

The stolen car was towed to the Mal­oney Po­lice Sta­tion for fur­ther analy­sis.