Family claims cop changed bullet in ‘Jiggers' killing

RELATIVES of part-time mason Kerry “Jiggers” Joseph have charged that the police changed the bullet that killed the Petit Valley resident.

Joseph’s common-law-wife, Althea Marcano made the statement yesterday following a preliminary investigation by the police that the lone slug that entered Joseph’s head did not come from a police gun. A .380 slug was removed from Joseph  on Monday, the day he died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, after a shootout in the Petit Valley area on May 22. An off-duty police constable was also grazed in the head and is now on injury leave.  He had been issued with a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver. Senior police officers said the officer’s revolver could not hold the .380 slug. “The bullet was changed but everything will come out in the open,” Marcano, mother of one of Joseph’s two children told Newsday yesterday. Marcano added: “We leave everything in the hands of God. God doesn’t sleep.”

Meantime, officers of the Western Division said yesterday they were pursuing certain lines of investigations to plug what they said are the legal holes in charging people with Joseph’s murder. As investigations continued, senior officers of the Western Division said police were on the field yesterday gathering evidence that could lead to an arrest and conviction in the killing. Two people have already appeared in court as a result of the Petit Valley shooting.  One of them has been charged with attempting to murder the policeman, while the other has been charged with ammunition possession. Sgt Anthony Lezama of the West End Police Station is continuing investigations.