Trinidad and Tobago’s capital city is on alert after a brazen prison escape that involved explosives and a deadly shootout with police.
Police say three inmates broke out of Port of Spain jail Friday afternoon. One prison guard was killed in the shootout with the escapees. Constable Sherman Maynard, 27, died from gunshot wounds in the attack.
Meanwhile, police say they shot and killed one of the inmates, Allan “Scanny” Martin, on the grounds of Port of Spain’s General Hospital.
The two other escapees, identified as Christopher “Monster” Selby, 30, and Hassan Atwell, 41, are still on the loose and considered armed and dangerous.
After the escape, a police bomb squad had to remove what they described as a “hand grenade” from outside the jail.
Selby was facing charges in the 2006 murder of a local businesswoman as well as two other unrelated counts of murder.
Authorities say Atwell was in custody “pending extradition to the United States to face charges of conspiracy to engage in hostage taking, hostage taking and aiding and abetting the taking of a hostage.”
An unidentified 43-year-old man is apparently being held in connection with the escape and is said to be cooperating in the investigation.