Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

A sol­dier, who re­cent­ly joined the T&T Reg­i­ment, is now in po­lice cus­tody in con­nec­tion with the Pen­ny­wise rob­bery and mur­ders of two Al­lied se­cu­ri­ty guards.

The sus­pect, who lives in South Trinidad, re­port­ed­ly told po­lice his ve­hi­cle was stolen.  

Po­lice said they are seek­ing to es­tab­lish whether the sol­dier, who is at­tached to the Crest Camp Army Base, in La Ro­maine, knew the four ban­dits who were killed by po­lice as they fled the Pen­ny­wise crime scene.

The white car used in the heist was torched near the army base in La Ro­maine, on Mon­day night.

The dead ban­dits have been iden­ti­fied as Kyle and Key­on Ramd­han, Greg Dobough and Deaun­dre Mon­trose, all of whom are in their 20s and al­so resided in Fyz­abad.

Mean­while, of­fi­cers say they have two more sus­pects in cus­tody. They were ar­rest­ed in some bush­es in La Ro­maine at the crack of dawn on Tues­day.

These sus­pects are known crim­i­nals in­volved in armed rob­beries. They spent the night crawl­ing through drains and bush­es as they at­tempt­ed to elude the po­lice who waged an all-out war against them on Mon­day.

Po­lice said the sus­pects know the where­abouts of the miss­ing mon­ey as well as the al­leged in­volve­ment of the sol­dier.

Mean­while, al­though re­ports sur­faced that the moth­er of one of the dead ban­dits worked at Pen­ny­wise, Guardian Me­dia was able to con­firm that the moth­er was not in the Pen­ny­wise Plaza on the day of the rob­bery.

Speak­ing to the me­dia at the La Ro­maine Po­lice Post on Tues­day, Se­nior Supt of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Richard Smith con­firmed that the rob­bers were in po­lice cus­tody but he said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was far from over.

“We are seek­ing oth­ers re­gard­ing this in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The two ar­rest­ed at Pond Street are in cus­tody. We found them at the crack of dawn, hid­ing in the bush­es,” Smith said.

He re­vealed that the po­lice had re­cov­ered some of the stolen mon­ey at the scene of the mur­der where se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers Jef­frey Pe­ters, Jer­ry Stu­art, Pe­o­la Bap­tiste and Al­lis­ter Har­ris were am­bushed and their Mit­subishi pick-up rid­dled with bul­lets.

Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc Don­ald Ja­cob al­so re­vealed that the rob­bers wore bul­let­proof vests, com­bat boots and car­ried sub-ma­chine guns. He said over 100 spent shells were re­trieved from the scene of the crime. 

Ja­cobs gave the as­sur­ance to the pub­lic that the TTPS was ready to deal with crim­i­nals.