Relatives of Avalon Sanchez, who, along with Kevin Thomas, was killed by police last week, yesterday claimed Sanchez was killed as he was surrendering to police.
Speaking outside the Forensic Science Centre, St James, relatives of 25-year-old Sanchez, who asked not to be identified, said they were reliably informed that he and his accomplices had surrendered when they were killed.
The relatives said they were given the information by police officers who had listened to the incident over their wireless communication system. The conversation, they said they were told, ended with a police officer saying “And you want to shoot at police,” before gunshots were heard and the transmission discontinued.
According to reports, around 3.30 pm last Thursday four men went to the home of a prominent businessman at Rampersad Trace, Monroe Road, Cunupia, and tied up the family before robbing them of cash, jewelery and other valuables.
They then escaped in a white Nissan Tiida. The police were contacted and officers from the Central Division Task Force and CID tracked the suspects to a house at First Street, off Sun Valley Drive, Santa Cruz. The bandits opened fire on the police on seeing them and the officers fired back. One of the men died at the scene while two others, one of them a fire-fighter attached to the Arima Fire Station, were hospitalised. The fourth gunman escaped, police said.