(Trinidad Express) A St Augustine businesswoman turned the tables on two armed robbers after she drew her licensed pump action shotgun and opened fire on the suspects at her mini-mart on Friday.
The suspects, police said, got more than what they bargained for when 35-year-old Shanlot Shande, the proprietor of A&S Food Plus Mini Mart, pulled out the shotgun and defended herself.
One of the suspects, 35, of Mt Lambert, Champs Fleurs, was shot and wounded when Shande fired two shots at him and his accomplice during the incident.
Another man was waiting in a getaway car.
Officers said the suspects apparently became disoriented when Shande drew the shotgun.
The incident, police said, occurred around 11.30 a.m., while Shande was conducting sales at her business place at Warren Street, St Augustine.
The injured suspect was later arrested by officers led by Insp Rameshwar Seecharran, Sgt Basdeo Sinanan and PCs Michael Galera and Aaron Mc Leoud of the St Joseph CID.
He remains warded in stable condition under police guard at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mount Hope, after he sustained gunshot wounds to the chest and upper part of his body.
Police said the incident unfolded just as three men entered the business place, pretending to be customers.
One of the men pulled out a gun and pointed it at Shande and threatened to shoot her if she did not cooperate with them.
The victim, police said, had her two-year-old child in her arms. She asked the robbers for permission to place the child in a crib at a nearby room and permission was granted.
While Shande made her way to a back room, the suspects opened the cash register and stole TT$2,000.
To the surprise of the suspects, Shande returned with a pump action shotgun and opened fire on the men, causing them to duck for cover and make a hasty retreat into a black Lancer motorcar. The suspects, police said, were so shocked by Shande’s reaction, they did not return fire.
“We believe that their main focus was to escape from the woman before she killed one of them,” a source close to the investigation told the Sunday Express.
