(Trinidad Express) The shootout between police and suspected gang members on the Eastern Main Road, Laventille Wednes-day was a watershed event with criminals now operating with new sophisticated, highly organised guerilla-type tactics.
This was the view of crime researcher Daurius Figueira, who warned that the police should now brace for the worst in any shootout with criminals.
Figueira said the criminals in the latest shootout were “no ordinary gangbangers” because of the level of organisation and discipline they displayed.
He said they are also displaying a new recklessness.
“You don’t care about collateral damage, you don’t care how much you kill to take out your target.”
He said it was a “very troubling and complex development” that started in December last year and continued into January 2020.
“It started with the shooting on the North Coast taxi stand in Port of Spain last year and continued with the shooting on Queen Street this week.”
He noted that in the shootout in Port of Spain on December 31, in which criminals fired on a group of people killing mother of three Lystra Hernandez-Patterson, all the gunmen were killed by the police near the scene.
He said in Wednesday’s incident, however, they had covering fire from outside while they engaged the police and all escaped.
This incident began along Queen Street when a white Nissan Tiida pulled to a stop and two men with firearms exited the car and fired at a group of people.
They left the scene but encountered the police on the Eastern Main Road where a shootout between them ensued.
At the same time, individuals provided covering fire for the criminals from somewhere in the residential area to the north ambushed the police.
The criminals escaped.
Figueira said, “We have always had instances in the past of gangbanging where you pull up on a block and shoot people.
“You now have to brace for the worst. (Wednesday) was a watershed event, indicating an entirely new trend in Trinidad now.
“The individuals involv ed in the shooting on the North Coast taxi stand all died in the firefight close to the market.
“Not a single individual that was in the Tiida in the latest incident died on the scene.
“All escaped because of the effectiveness of the covering fire they received from the north and their own ability to engage with the police.
“It was a classic action, like guerillas. You were engaging, you had covering fire and you slipped away.”
He said: “The impact of it was clear that these are no ordinary gangbangers. This is a new development. It done by people who are organised, people with training.”
Figueira said along with discipline and organisation, criminals are now operating with a new kind of recklessness and single-mindedness of purpose.
“The shooting showed another type of criminal action was launched. When you are launching an action to take out targets, you don’t care about who you shoot in the process.
He said gangs have various means to get training.
“You pick up training from various sources. You have people who move in and out of the various security agencies in T&T.
“And you have people who get trained abroad in some foreign army and return to Trinidad.”
Figueira said there seems to be also a “cleansing” going on in the criminal world.
He said the latest, the shooting of the three teenagers in Demerara Road, Arima yesterday, indicated this.
“Cleansing can come from within the business or without and there seems to be a targeting of teenagers.”
