Trinidad: Cops rescue mother, daughter held hostage by father

(Trinidad Guardian) A woman and her daugh­ter had to be res­cued yes­ter­day by of­fi­cers from the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions re­sponse Team (SORT) and the North­ern Di­vi­sion af­ter a two-hour or­deal where they were held hostage by the woman’s hus­band.

The in­ci­dent took place at Mal­abar yes­ter­day morn­ing and saw scores of heav­i­ly armed po­lice of­fi­cers in the area as they tried to bring a peace­ful end to what could have been a dead­ly sit­u­a­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, of­fi­cers were told the 34-year-old man, who lives with his wife and daugh­ter at Har­ri­nanan Av­enue, Mal­abar be­gan “act­ing-up” at about 7 am.

He is said to suf­fer from a men­tal ail­ment.

Po­lice said they were told that the sus­pect was at­tempt­ing to pre­vent the two fe­males – the moth­er and her daugh­ter, from leav­ing the house and even­tu­al­ly held them against their will.

The man was said to be throw­ing any­thing he got his hands on in­clud­ing fur­ni­ture in­side the house.

It was un­clear if he was armed or had any weapon when he held his wife and daugh­ter in­side the house against their will.

Re­ports said as the sit­u­a­tion es­ca­lat­ed, res­i­dents came out of their homes to see what was tak­ing place.

The po­lice were called in by oth­er rel­a­tives and of­fi­cers from SORT, the North­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force and the Guard and Emer­gency Branch re­spond­ed to the tense sit­u­a­tion.

The po­lice ser­vice in a state­ment said, “af­ter two hours of tac­ti­cal ne­go­ti­a­tions, led by a Spe­cial Branch ne­go­tia­tor, the vic­tims were re­leased un­harmed in­to the care of po­lice of­fi­cers.”

Re­ports reach­ing Guardian Me­dia said the of­fi­cers called out to the oc­cu­pants of the house, when they did not ex­it, the of­fi­cers used a sledge­ham­mer and axe to break down a door to the house for them to en­ter to res­cue the moth­er and girl.

Both the woman and her daugh­ter were said to be vis­i­bly shak­en by the ter­ri­fy­ing or­deal.

The woman and girl, whose ages and names have not been re­leased, were tak­en to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal and checked out.

Po­lice said no phys­i­cal harm was in­flict­ed on the two, but they were “high­ly trau­ma­tised” and will have to un­der­go coun­selling.

The 34 year-old sus­pect, who is said to be men­tal­ly un­sta­ble, sur­ren­dered to of­fi­cers with­out in­ci­dent. He was ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers and he too was tak­en to the same hos­pi­tal for treat­ment.

Of­fi­cers said he will be sent to the St Ann’s Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tal for as­sess­ment and treat­ment if need­ed.

It was not clear if this was the first time the man act­ed in such a hos­tile man­ner to­wards his own wife and daugh­ter.

The res­cue mis­sion was led by Sgt. Mark Her­nan­dez of SORT, and su­per­vised by Snr. Supt. Cur­tis Paul and ASP Ni­am Gyan of the North­ern Di­vi­sion.

The sus­pect was ar­rest­ed and is as­sist­ing po­lice with their in­ves­ti­ga­tions.