A suspected criminal was shot dead, two others were arrested, and five remain at large following a police operation in Marabella on Wednesday night that disrupted an alleged home invasion and robbery network.
In a statement, police said officers acted on credible intelligence that a group of armed men was preparing to carry out a home invasion on Union Park East.
The operation involved officers of the Southern Division Task Force, Southern Division Emergency Response and Tactical Unit, Marabella Police, and San Fernando Police Station.
According to police, around 9.25 p.m., officers responded after residents reported seeing several armed men gathered on a residential property. Upon arrival, officers encountered approximately eight men in a yard. The suspects attempted to flee when they noticed police presence.
Police said two of the suspects allegedly pointed firearms at officers, prompting an armed confrontation in which one man sustained fatal injuries. A revolver containing six rounds of .38 ammunition was recovered at the scene.
Two other suspects were arrested during the operation. One, a 24-year-old man of Quarry Road, Gasparillo, was allegedly found in possession of a revolver and six rounds of ammunition. A second suspect, a 20-year-old man of Union Park East, Marabella, was reportedly found with a cellular phone believed to have been stolen earlier in the day during a separate home invasion in Gasparillo.
Investigators believe the group may also be linked to an earlier incident on Reform Road, Benlomond, Gasparillo, where four armed men allegedly posing as customers at a tent rental business robbed an elderly woman at gunpoint and beat her during a home invasion.
Police further suspect the same group was involved in multiple related offences across the Southern Division earlier that day.
Following the confrontation, officers intensified operations in the area, and five additional suspects remain the subject of an active manhunt.
Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro, in the TTPS statement, said the Service remains committed to aggressively targeting home invasion gangs.
He warned that criminals who engage police officers with firearms “determine the outcome” of such encounters, adding that the TTPS will continue to defend law-abiding citizens, particularly the elderly and vulnerable, from violent crime.
