Cops kill fugitive
By Akile Simon
Story Created: Jan 23, 2011 at 11:52 PM ECT
Story Updated: Jan 23, 2011 at 11:52 PM ECT
http://media.trinidadexpress.com/images ... 568n16.jpgA man described by police as a "notorious pest" who was wanted in connection with multiple murders, shootings, kidnappings, robberies and escaping legal custody, was on Saturday night shot dead during a confrontation with police in Tunapuna.
Jason Bhagwandeen, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, after he was taken to the facility by police shortly after 9 p.m.
Officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, the North-Eastern and Northern Division Task Force led by Sgt Roger Alexander and Cpl Matthew Harewood, acting on information, stormed the yard of a house at Back Street, Tunapuna, where they shot and killed the suspect.
Acting on information, police said they surrounded the house.
As officers attempted to enter the yard, Bhagwandeen ran out with a T-shirt covering his face. Upon seeing the officers, he reportedly fired two shots at them and ran to the back of the house where he jumped over a wall and was confronted by other police officers.
Police claimed the suspect pointed a revolver in their direction and they opened fire on him, hitting him in the chest.
A search was conducted inside the house and officers detained a 35-year-old woman on charges of harbouring a wanted fugitive and several other offences.
Police said Bhagwandeen escaped legal custody while at the Arima Magistrates' Court last year on a charge of kidnapping businessman Wazir Mohammed who was rescued in a forest at Sangre Grande.
Police said they have been searching for Bhagwandeen for several months.
Officers said after they got information that he was staying in the Tunapuna area, they had several residences under surveillance.
Investigations are continuing into the incident.
On March 14, 2008, officers of the Eastern Division and Northern Division Task Force, shot and killed one of Bhagwandeen's brothers, Marlon, during a shootout when police stormed a shack where he was hiding out at in Oropouche Road, Valencia.
Police said he was wanted in connection with three murders, several rapes, shootings and other serious crimes in the Las Lomas, Caparo and Longdenville area.
A third sibling, Ezra, 26, police said, remained incarcerated on charges of murdering four men who were playing a game of dominoes outside a parlour at Kernaham Trace, Chin Chin Road, Cunupia on August 18, 2006.
Christopher Nelson, 48; Gerard Gibson, 53; Reynold Elie, 53 and Willard Cantaro, 31, were playing dominoes on a wooden bench outside a roadside shop, when two masked men walked up to them and opened fire.
In 2007, Waldron Samuel, 24, one of the State's main witness who was due to testify against Ezra in the murder case, was gunned down while liming at a bar at Madras Road Junction, Chin Chin, Cunupia.
Bhagwandeen's picture was on the Ministry of National Security's 'face-to-face' most wanted advertisements.
His picture also appears on the Caribbean's Most Wanted website.