“Big Brent” Miller was discharged from hospital over the weekend, less than three days after he was shot three times in a failed assassination attempt. Police said Miller, 38, a former murder accused, was warded in satisfactory condition at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital until he was discharged on Sunday afternoon. Investigators describe the shootings as a “hit” and were said to be pursuing a number of leads up to yesterday.
Miller, of Ariapita Road, St Ann’s, was driving along St Ann’s Road around 10.30 am on Friday when he was ambushed by two gunmen who shot him in the chest, arm and lower back.
Miller’s friend, Shane Boucaud, who was in the front passenger seat, escaped being shot, but was cut by broken glass from Miller’s smashed windshield. Boucaud was treated and discharged from hospital on Friday.
The car used by the gunmen was found abandoned along Braemar Road, Cascade, a short while later. Police, led by Sgt Anselm Knott, found a high-powered rifle and 9 mm handgun nearby. Police believe the guns were used in the attack and have sent them to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for ballistic testing. In 2010, Miller and Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr were jointly charged with the murder of 22-year-old Maraval mechanic Israel Sammy, who was gunned down in front of his house on May 20, 1998.
Both were later freed after Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard decided to discontinue the matter. Miller appeared as a key prosecution witness in Bakr’s 2006 trial for conspiring to murder two former members of the Jamaat. ASP Ajith Persad is leading the investigators probing the shooting.
