(Trinidad Guardian) A 49-year-old former soldier was shot and killed during a robbery yesterday afternoon.
According to reports, around midday, Roger Bailey, from La Horquetta, Arima, was plying his private car for hire in his community.
Bailey reportedly dropped off two female passengers and was on his way to drop an elderly woman to church when he picked up a man along Tumpuna Road South.
As Bailey approached to location the man asked to be dropped off at, he (the man) drew a gun. He robbed Bailey of cash before shooting him. The man then robbed the elderly woman of her handbag, which contained $160 and a Bible. He then ran away.
Bailey died on the scene.
In January 2010, Bailey was convicted of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Bailey was arrested December 6, 2001, after police officers found 1.48 kilos of cocaine hidden in coffee jars in his luggage as he was about to board a flight to New York.
During his trial, Bailey denied any wrongdoing, as he claimed the drugs were in a package which a neighbour gave him to deliver to a relative in New York. After he was convicted by a nine-member jury before Justice Devan Rampersad, he was dishonourably discharged by the T&T Defence Force (TTDF).
Meanwhile, a man from Arima was killed in an apparent car-jacking on Saturday morning.
At 2.15 am, Charmaine Jack, of Calvary Branch Road, Arima, was awakened by a car horn and several gunshots. When she checked outside, she saw blood near the spot where her 24-year-old son Stephen usually parks.
Jack contacted the man who her son had purchased his car from almost two weeks ago and he (the man) checked the GPS tracker attached to the vehicle.
Investigators went to the location near to Jack’s home, where they found his car abandoned.
Based on information provided by the tracker, they went to another location off Blanchisseuse Road in Arima, where they found Stephen’s body.
He was pronounced dead on the scene by a District Medical Officer (DMO).
Detectives of the Region Two Homicide Bureau are probing Bailey and Jack’s murders.
