Former Trinidad national footballer killed in an alleged shootout with police

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad- Former national footballer Akeem ‘Battery’ Benjamin was one of two men fatally shot by police on Wednesday after what lawmen said was a shootout following an alleged robbery.

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The identity of the other deceased has not been disclosed.

According to police reports, 32-year-old former defender Benjamin, who also played with local football clubs such as W Connection, Central FC and most recently San Juan Jabloteh, was among three suspects in a robbery.

Lawmen reported that around 12:20 p.m., mem­bers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force re­spond­ed to a re­port that three ban­dits were on the Flavorite Ice Cream compound at Boundary Road in San Juan.

On ar­rival, the of­fi­cers saw a man jump­ing a fence on the west­ern side of the build­ing. Police said the of­fi­cers drove to­wards the El So­cor­ro area to check the scene and saw two men run­ning, and gave chase.

The men ran in­to a room on the west­ern side of the build­ing. The po­lice en­tered the room and the sus­pects re­port­ed­ly drew guns. The of­fi­cers fired sev­er­al shots, hit­ting the sus­pects. The po­lice sub­se­quent­ly seized a pis­tol and a re­volver.

The former Trinidad national footballer and the other wound­ed sus­pect were tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where they died. A third man was de­tained.

CMC/