Police yesterday identified David Allen as the bandit who was killed by an off-duty police officer during a botched robbery at a casino in Woodbrook on Monday night.
Allen, 31, of Enterprise, Chaguanas, had posed as a woman, complete with make-up and tight-fitted clothing, during the attempted robbery of the Stir Fry King Restaurant and Casino Pei Da Xiu. However, he was confronted and shot in an exchange of gunfire with off-duty cop Constable Omari Danglade while attempting to escape.
Police yesterday described Allen as a “disguise mastermind.” They said in 2004, Allen, then 18, also disguised himself as a vagrant and attempted to rob a TSTT technician Darryn Baksh as he was leaving 51 Degrees nightclub at Cipriani Boulevard, Port-of-Spain. There was a struggle and Baksh was shot in the stomach and later died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
In 2012, Allen pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter after he was charged with murdering Baksh. The State accepted his guilty plea and he was sentenced to four years and six months for the offence, in addition to the eight years he spent awaiting trial.
Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, Allen’s mother, Ann Slater, said the father of one paid the ultimate price for his wrongdoing and she had no issue with what happened. She said her son was no saint and he hid his criminal tendencies from his family.
Her advice to others following her son’s death: “Please youths, put down the gun. We know the system failing we, but we can make the place a better place, it is us who have to do it.
“The Government is only a handful of people. We are over a million out here, let us come together, let us unite.”
Allen’s brother, who did not want to be identified, said he was most hurt by the fact that his brother won’t be able to stand as his best man for his wedding on Sunday. He added that he waited 11 years for his brother to be his best man and put off his wedding for after his release from prison for the 2004 incident.
Allen was one of two bandits killed by police within a six-hour span.
In the other police shooting, Willard Hernandez, 31, who had earlier been identified by police as John Hernandez, was shot dead near a river in Gran Couva after a robbery at an apartment at La Croix Street, Couva.
Four Venezuelan nationals were robbed of a handbag containing $3,000, a cell phone valued at $1,750, their passports, credit cards and other personal documents during the incident. Officers who responded to the distress call shot Hernandez after he fired at them while trying to escape.
At the FSC yesterday, relative disputed police information about the clothing Hernandez was in during the incident. They said they intended to visit the Police Complaints Authority to file an official report.
The woman said police came between 2.30 to 3 am and told all those who were liming in the community to run and all except she did. The next she heard was Hernandez begging, saying, “‘Oh god d boss, allyuh done hold meh already’” before the sound of gunshots. She said police seized money from Hernandez, but that was not proceedings of a robbery but money he grabbed from off a counter when police told them to run.