In 2015 Port of Spain was the scene of a dramatic prison break which ended in the death of a 26-year-old police constable, Sherman Maynard, and two escapees.
Saturday marked six years since the incident and there are still several unanswered questions surrounding who planned it, who gave prisoners the tools, and where has the police investigation reached.
On July 24, 2015, at around midday, prisoners Hassan Atwell, Allan “Scanny” Martin and Christopher “Monster” Selby shot their way out of the Port of Spain prison on Frederick Street. During their escape, a prison officer was wounded and Maynard was killed.
Martin was shot dead when confronted by police in a guard booth at the Port of Spain General Hospital soon after. Atwell was found dead days later in East Port of Spain.
The surviving escapee, Selby, surrendered to police and was later charged with Maynard’s murder and escaping lawful custody. The case is still pending.
[caption id="attachment_903313" align="alignnone" width="811"] Prisoner Allan "Scanny" martin who was shot dead by police moments after escaping from the Frederick Street, Port of Spain prison in 2015. -[/caption]
Dennis Pulchan, now prison commissioner, told Newsday on Sunday that he was appointed lead prison investigator into the escape, and his report was submitted to the Prison Service Commission on October 2, 2015.
Three prison officers were suspended and allegations of misconduct were investigated by a disciplinary committee. The allegations were dismissed and the officers were reinstated more than three years later.
A National Security joint select committee of Parliament was told the contraband which the prisoners used may have been taken into the prison by a visitor on the same day or sometime before.
In a 2016 report, the committee said it was concerned that such contraband entered the prison undetected.
But Prison Officers Association president Cerron Richards told the committee in a subsequent meeting (November 13, 2019), that Pulchan was only appointed to investigate allegations arising out of another investigation into the jail break.
“On July 24, 2015 the then commissioner of prisons, Mr Sterling Stuart, was out of the country,” Richards said.
[caption id="attachment_903312" align="alignnone" width="463"] Prisoner Hassan Atwell who was found dead after escaping from the Port of Spain prison in 2015. -[/caption]
“On July 27, Mr Morgan who acted as commissioner during the time of the jail break handed over duties to Mr Stuart with a report of the incident. On July 28 Mr Thomas Espinosa Assistant Commissioner of Prisons was appointed by Stuart to do an inquiry into the prison break... No one to date can properly account, or account at all, to the whereabouts of that report.”
In a Newsday report in 2018, then prisons commissioner Gerard Wilson said only the preliminary report was missing, but the final report resulted in the suspension of the three officers.
Richards told Newsday on Sunday, there has been no police report either.
“If there was a report
