Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has is­sued a strong warn­ing to vi­o­lent home in­vaders, stat­ing that of­fi­cers will “de­fend them­selves and the cit­i­zens” fol­low­ing a po­lice op­er­a­tion in Mara­bel­la that end­ed with one sus­pect be­ing fa­tal­ly shot and two oth­ers ar­rest­ed.

The con­fronta­tion came hours af­ter two sep­a­rate home in­va­sions in Gas­par­il­lo on Wednes­day, as law en­force­ment in­ten­si­fied ef­forts to dis­man­tle or­gan­ised rob­bery gangs op­er­at­ing in South and Cen­tral Trinidad.

Po­lice said the fa­tal shoot­ing oc­curred af­ter of­fi­cers in­ter­cept­ed a sus­pect­ed rob­bery crew at Union Park East, Mara­bel­la, where in­tel­li­gence sug­gest­ed an­oth­er home in­va­sion was be­ing planned.