Who killed 'Jiggers'?

KERRY “Jiggers” Joseph, one of the two people shot last Thursday during a shoot-out in Petit Valley, died yesterday morning at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, and relatives are charging that Joseph, 27, of Spring View Drive, Petit Valley, was killed by a bullet from a police gun.  However, police said Joseph, a part-time mason, was killed by his own colleagues during the crossfire. Joseph, father of two sons, ages seven and seven months, was shot in the head, following the shootout which police said started on Pioneer Drive and ended at Cassia Drive Extension, also in Petit Valley.

A post-mortem performed yesterday by pathologist Dr Hughvon DesVignes revealed Joseph died from a single bullet wound to the head.  Acting Commissioner of Police Everald Snaggs said the matter is under investigation by senior officers. According to police reports, the officer left to go to a scrapyard based on information he received. When he got there, police said, the officer met a known drug dealer who gave him additional information that certain people were going to “cut a deal”. Shortly after, police said, a group of men came to the scrapyard and said they did not want to do the transactions there but on their own turf. Police said the officer, along with the alleged drug dealer and the group of men, left for Pioneer Drive in a vehicle belonging to one of the group members.

There, police said, the group of men, one of whom was Joseph, tried to relieve the officer of his firearm. Police said based on certain information the group of men received from other people, the men thought that the officer was a bandit who came to sell a firearm. A shootout started and police said Joseph was shot in Pioneer Drive. The officer began to run with members of the group in hot pursuit. While running, police said the men began firing shots at the officer, who shouted to other people that they should take cover.  The officer then asked some workmen for a cellphone, from where he called for back-up. Police said the group continued and eventually one of the bullets grazed the officer in his head.

At Joseph’s home yesterday, his common-law wife Althea Marcano said the police’s theory is untrue. Joseph’s mother, Martha Martin, 47, said that nothing has been heard of the drug dealer who was reportedly in company with the officer. “I want to know what’s going on. Who killed my son? This thing is just so bizarre,” Martin, a cleaner and mother of three, told Newsday yesterday. She admitted that her son was no saint and had a police case which she refused to talk about. Sgt Anthony Lezama of the West End Police Station is continuing inquiries.