Police are searching for men who shot an American couple over the weekend. Reports indicate that Christian missionaries Suzanne Prins, 45, and Kevin Prins, 49, were accosted by four masked men, armed with revolvers and a shotgun, outside the gates of their residence at Las Lomas, around 5.15 pm on Sunday.
By Adrian BoodanThe couple, along with their children Alessia, 15, and Sean,11, were driving into their housing compound in their white Toyota Prado.
Also on the compound is the local arm of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), a worldwide Christian charitable, family-oriented organisation.
Suzanne was shot on the hip, while Kevin, who heads the local arm of the YWAM, was hit on his shoulder.
The children were not harmed.
The bandits fled after the shooting. Police say robbery was the main motive for the assault, but believe the bandits got scared and hurried out of the area.
Insp Ramsubagh and PC Balkaran of Chaguanas CID, and PC Toolaram of Cunupia CID, visited the scene.
Toolaram is heading investigations.
The victims were taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope, where they were scheduled to undergo surgery.
They were transferred later to the private hospital run by Medical Associates.
Their children were left in the custody of mission members.
Sources say the mission is on a 72-acre spread in the Las Lomas/San Rafael area, and contains four houses where mission members stay.
Contacted by phone, a spokesman for the mission said she was unable to comment at this time and refused to divulge any information about the mission.
A US Embassy official said they received word of the shooting only yesterday.
A check on the mission?s local Web site shows that the YWAM has a staff of ten, and operates several training, evangelism and outreach ministries.
The mission started in 2000 and is constructing a youth village on the massive spread.
The attack on the couple comes barely a month after the body of American-born Sean Luke, six, was discovered on March 28 in a cane field near his Orange Valley home in Couva.
Luke was born in New York.
