2015 prison escape revisited: 3 escaped, 3 dead, still no answers a decade later

Ten years ago, gunfire inside the Port-of-Spain prison sent shockwaves through the capital. Three inmates armed with two pistols and a grenade shot their way out of custody in broad daylight—killing a police officer and wounding others in what remains one of the most violent and mysterious prison breaks in Trinidad and Tobago’s history.

The incident led to the deaths of two inmates, Allan “Scanny” Martin and Hassan Atwell, the murder of policeman PC Sherman Maynard and panic that engulfed a city for weeks.

The lone surviving escapee, Christopher “Monster” Selby, surrendered to police days later and has since been returned to the Port-of-Spain Remand Yard where he remains to this day.

Now, a decade later, the threat once again comes from within.

In the early hours of Friday morning, a number of inmates were quietly relocated from the Arouca and Port-of-Spain prisons—part of a wider security sweep under the current State of Emergency.

According to intelligence sources, the action was triggered by an alarming revelation: the resurgence of a prison-based criminal syndicate allegedly plotting attacks on state officials.

But even as authorities move to disrupt this latest threat, they have yet to fully explain the last one.

Though it was heavily speculated that the trio received the weapons from prison officers, this was never conclusively proven despite multiple investigations, tribunal hearings, and promises of justice.