2 weeks ago
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Shastri Boodan
Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro says the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is open to working with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) to investigate any cases of wrongful police shootings.
Speaking on Thursday at a Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) breakfast seminar on security and strategic planning, Guevarro maintained that the TTPS is committed to accountability and oversight.
“There is now public debate about police involved shootings and the public debate, some people calling extra judicial killings. I want to assure the public here today that the TTPS has always and shall continue under my watch to be able to independently investigate its own and if wrong doing is found—prosecute those who are found to be doing wrong,” he said.
“We are also ably assisted by the Police Complaints Authority which is an independent oversight body and we welcome any cooperation with that entity.”
Guevarro also addressed concerns over rising gun violence, pointing to a recent incident in Penal captured on social media.
“The first thing you see in their hand is a gun and they start shooting immediately. There is a clip from over the weekend in Penal, they run in the bar shooting,” he said. “I am unsure why certain elements in the public would believe that when they (the criminals) see the police they would do anything differently. They engage the police just as fast as they would engage the members of the public.”
He continued, “They know that the persons they are going to attack in the bars are unarmed and they still come in shooting, so if you know that the police officer is armed you know what they going to do, as soon as they see the police vehicle they pull out their guns.”
Guevarro ended with a call for those in possession of illegal firearms to give them up.
“Some of your colleagues in crime have already called police stations and told police officers where to find these weapons, take heed and don’t be last in line, hand in the weapons and we shall continue to live and prosper in a society that we all can be safe in.”
This comes as three men were shot and killed by police in two separate incidents in Tacarigua and Valencia late yesterday.
In the first incident, just after 5 pm at Orange Grove Road, officers reportedly pursued suspects in a stolen vehicle. Police say there was a confrontation and one man was shot dead while another escaped.
In a separate incident along the Valencia Old Road, officers allegedly engaged two men in a shootout. Both were shot and later died at hospital.
Unconfirmed reports suggest one of the men was a suspect in the June 20 murder of prison officer Govindra Balgobin.
These latest shootings bring the total number of people killed in police-involved incidents to ten since the State of Emergency began on July 18. For the year so far, there have been 40 police-involved shootings with 49 fatalities.
English (US) ·