POLICE investigating the incident in which Bianca Charles, an innocent bystander, was killed during an alleged shootout between police and car thieves in Morvant earlier this month have ruled her death as accidental.

Police said Charles was killed when a bullet fired by officers assigned to the Repeat Offenders Programme Task Force (ROPTF) struck a steel door and steel fragments entered the victim's body. The fragments from the bullet were never found because it disintegrated upon impact, a police source said.

When contacted yesterday, head of the North Eastern Division, Snr Supt Theophilus Cummings, said the probe was almost complete.

"The investigators are tying up a few loose ends and I'm expected to get a report on the incident very soon, which would then be forwarded to the acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert," he said in a telephone interview.

According to a source close to the investigation, evidence revealed that the bullet which caused Charles's death came from a high-powered weapon used by police officers. The source said based on the path which the bullet that penetrated the steel door travelled from, it was evident it came from an officer's weapons.

"Based on the impact left in the door, the bullet came from west to east, the same direction the officers were chasing the suspects. So it was clear that one of the officers fired that shot and not the suspects," the source said.

Four high-powered guns, which include two Galil rifles and two MP5 submachine guns, which were used by four ROPTF officers on the night of the incident, were sent for ballistic testing. Forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov did an X-ray on Charles's body one day after a post mortem and discovered fragments in the woman's liver.

Around 10 p.m. on July 14, Charles was injured while standing in front the Smiling Faces Restaurant and Bar, which she and her husband Nigel Christmas operated just opposite the Neal and Massy compound in Morvant. Her five-year-old daughter Safiya Christmas was standing next to her during the incident. Charles, 39, who lived at Upper Sixth Avenue, Malick, Barataria, succumbed to her injuries around 3 a.m. the following day at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Police officers claimed they were involved in a shootout while pursuing two suspects in a stolen car along Industrial Lane, off Lady Young Road. However, Christmas, who said he witnessed the incident, claimed the bandits were not shooting at the police. Charles was laid to rest last week.

ASP Kenrick Edwards of the Morvant Police Station is leading the investigation.