By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

A HIGH-SPEED car-chase and a gunfight ended when a police officer was shot in the face after it is alleged that he and three other men attempted to rob a web-shop.

Supt Paul Rolle, head of the Central Detective Unit, said the incident took place around 11am yesterday at Island Luck on Cow Pen Road off Faith Avenue.

An ICS Security Concepts armoured car was collecting a deposit from the gaming house when they were held up by four men in a silver coloured Teana.

Two of the occupants got out of the car – one armed with an assault rifle and the other with a handgun – and attempted to rob the security team of the deposit.

The armoured car then sped off, prompting the culprits to get back in the Teana and chase after it. The group wound up in the area of Golden Gates, off St Vincent Road, and exchanged gunfire.

As a result, one of the occupants of the Teana car was shot in his face. The other Teana occupants then stopped the car, opened the car door, pushed the injured man out, and sped off.

The car was found a short time later in the Southern Hills area, destroyed by fire.

Police believe the remaining three suspects robbed a man and a woman of their Honda, in the area of Bel Palm off St Vincent Road, and then used the stolen car to make their escape.

After the gunfight, the ICS team drove to the Carmichael Road police station where they reported the entire ordeal to police.

At the scene, police found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the face and recognised the wounded man as a fellow police officer.

They then took the wounded officer to hospital where he remains under police guard.

Supt Rolle said police believe another occupant of the silver Teana might have been injured in the gunfight. They are following significant leads.

One member of the ICS team was also injured in the fight and taken to hospital.

No one else was injured, but police report a car was damaged by the gunfire in the area of the web-shop.