Three detained for shooting of off duty cop

An off-duty police officer was in the right place at the right time to stop a crime in the making, but he was not so lucky as to avoid taking a bullet in the process. Police Constable Shannon Garbutt was walking on Euphrates Avenue in the direction from Orange Street to King Street just after eight Tuesday night when he noticed three men enter a yard with their shirts pulled over their faces and one of them with a gun. The culprits headed underneath a house where a group of men were gathered. Suspecting that trouble was afoot, the officer pulled out his licensed nine millimetre firearm, identified himself as a police officer and ordered the trio to stop. But the gunman had other plans and fired a shot at Garbutt, which fortunately missed. Garbutt responded with shots of his own, but at this point a second man from among the three produced a gun and unleashed a barrage of bullets, one of which hit Garbutt in the left knee. The officer remains in stable condition at the K.H.M.H. and police have not yet filed charges against the three suspects detained.