A man identified only as Ricardo was killed by police in Mayaro on Sunday following a confrontation during an investigation into an alleged copper theft at an energy services compound.<\/p>\n
According to the police account reported by CNC3, officers of the Mayaro CID were on mobile patrol at approximately 4:45 a.m. when they responded to a report of an intruder at the Tucker Energy Services Limited compound in New Lands Village, Mayaro.<\/p>\n
The intruder was reportedly suspected of stealing copper from the compound.<\/p>\n
Police said Constables Meighoo, Mentor and Ragbir searched the property but initially did not locate the suspect. During their checks, officers reportedly discovered that electrical cables were missing.<\/p>\n
Coils of what police believed to be the missing cables were subsequently discovered in a bushy area near the compound’s perimeter fence.<\/p>\n
Police said the officers later spotted a man matching the description of the alleged intruder in an open area behind the compound. He was reportedly carrying a cutlass, wearing a black backpack and had a headlight on his head.<\/p>\n
According to the police account, PC Meighoo called out to the man, who allegedly ran away. Meighoo and Ragbir pursued him and eventually caught up with him.<\/p>\n
Police said the officers again instructed the man to surrender and drop the cutlass.<\/p>\n
During the encounter, officers allegedly discovered an iguana in his possession. Hunting is currently closed, making the possession of hunted wildlife potentially significant to the investigation.<\/p>\n
Police reported that as Meighoo attempted to arrest the man, he was shoved in the chest. The man then allegedly grabbed his cutlass and swung it at the officer.<\/p>\n
Meighoo reportedly moved backwards in an attempt to avoid the attack but suffered an injury to his right hand.<\/p>\n
Police said the officer again ordered the man to surrender, but he allegedly attempted to attack Meighoo with the cutlass once more.<\/p>\n
Meighoo then discharged his firearm.<\/p>\n
The wounded man reportedly moved backwards before collapsing down a steep hill.<\/p>\n
Police said officers attempted to remove him from the area but were initially unable to do so because of the terrain. Attempts to provide medical assistance were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Ricardo’s body was subsequently recovered and an autopsy was ordered.<\/p>\n
The circumstances surrounding the shooting are expected to be investigated in keeping with procedures governing police-involved fatalities.<\/p>\n
The account of the confrontation, including the allegation that Ricardo attacked the officer with a cutlass, represents the police version of events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mayaro Copper Theft Investigation Turns Deadly After Suspect Allegedly Attacks Police Officer With Cutlass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}