Shane Superville
Senior Reporter
A car chase into Cascade on Sunday night ended with a shootout and the death of one man, police said yesterday.
According to preliminary information gathered by police, officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) were on patrol around 10 pm along the Western Main Road when they noticed a white Nissan AD Wagon driving nearby with three men inside.
On seeing the police vehicle, the driver sped off, which led to officers chasing them to Mt Hololo, Cascade.
During the chase, the men shot at the police, who returned fire, causing the AD Wagon to veer off the roadway.
Two of the suspects escaped, while the third, who was shot, was taken to the Port-of- Spain General Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Police said the man was later identified as Shaquille Smart but few details were available on him up to late yesterday.
Investigators found six spent 5.56 spent shells at the scene.
According to data from the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Smart’s death brings the number of people killed in police-involved shootings to nine for the year. Sixty-eight people were killed out of the 55 incidents of police-involved shootings in 2025, while 55 people were killed out of the 37 cases of police-involved shootings in 2024. In 2023, there were 39 cases of fatal police-involved shootings.
