Cops to undergo AIDS, TB tests

SEVERAL officers attached to the Arouca Criminal Investigation Division have been mandated by a doctor attached to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex to get an AIDS/Tuberculosis test following their contact with a deceased sufferer. According to reports, at around 2 am yesterday morning, officers of the Arouca CID responded to a call at Rainbow Crescent, Five Rivers, Arouca, which stated that Philbert Bruno, 48, had succumbed to injuries from a beating he received in December last year at a drug den in Arima. Police noted a number of lacerations and moved the body while investigating.

The District Medical Officer was contacted and the police had more contact with the body, having to turn it over for the doctor. They also inspected the dead man’s mouth and scanned other parts of his body. The body was eventually transferred to the Forensic Science Centre and later to the EWMSC Mortuary after it was discovered that the victim was not beaten, but was suffering with the AIDS virus and Tuberculosis. When Newsday visited the Rainbow Crescent, Five Rivers home of the dead man, a relative said: “Bruno, a ‘spranger,’ had been living at my home since December after complaining he was beaten by some men in Arima. “We never knew he was suffering with AIDS. “So when he died we really thought it was because of a beating.” Cpl Mohammed is investigating.