ASP Michael Pierre: 1990 was like being in a war movie

Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police Michael Pierre was a traffic officer with a little more than two years experience as a constable.

Pierre, now the Police Service’s public information officer, related to Sunday Newsday the role he had to play in the events of 1990.

“I was assigned to the San Fernando Police Station,” Pierre said. “When the take over of TTT (Trinidad and Tobago Television) was happening, I was getting ready to report to duty, so I was getting ready to leave my home in Princes Town.” Little did Pierre know he would be instructed to carry out one of the most dangerous missions of his law enforcement career - escorting Anglican canon Reverend Knolly Clarke to the Red House where he would act as a negotiator for the release of hostages.

“When I saw it (on television) I was alarmed because I realised this was a serious thing and I rushed to work. While I was there, the Assistant Commissioner of Police was Norton Regis.

He came to the traffic section where I and Constable Patrick were and asked us if we were armed and who was the driver.

“He said we would have to escort Mr Knolly Clarke to the Red House. So, based on the little information that I heard through the grape vine, I felt a chill.

“I was thinking that I had no kind of warfare training and here it is I’m going to escort Mr Clarke to the Red House.” Pierre said while he was fearful, his sense of service as an officer of the law prevailed.

“In my heart that’s my duty and I took an oath to serve TT as a police officer and if that was a part of it, well then I intended to do my duty.” He said while he was aware of the gravity of the situation, the sight of looters along the highway put the situation into context for him.

“I can recall when we reached the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in the vicinity of Sea Lots I saw this guy with a fridge on his back running across the road.

I saw a hub of activity in that area, people running with microwaves, but the size of the fridge was almost the size of the man and here he is running with it.

“The chill I felt never left because I didn’t know if I’m driving into my death, but I was very aware of the seriousness of the situation because the looting meant things went topsy turvy.” He said he, his colleagues and Clarke arrived at the army base in Chaguaramas from where Clarke would be taken to the Red House. However, this was not the end of his experience as the base fell under siege from insurgents later that evening.

“I can recall whilst being in the barracks it was like actually being in a war movie. We were hearing gunshots and explosions. I remember at the time I was wearing a standard police-issued tunic and it had these silver buttons coming across like a cross. A soldier came up to me and he said, ‘You crazy! You setting yourself up as a target with a big cross on your chest! Boy take off them buttons or open up the tunic.’” Pierre explained due to the strict regulations at the barracks in the wake of the siege, he did not hear from his family or colleagues.

“I was at the army base from the Friday till Sunday evening.

I wasn’t able to communicate with my family until Sunday when I got a call from a resident over at Flagstaff, so I didn’t know what was the state of my family, they didn’t know what my state was, whether I’m alive or dead. Later on I found out that the people on work were praying for us because they thought since they had no communication with us that something went wrong and we were dead or something.” Pierre said while he has gone on to lead a long and eventful career, his involvement in the coup has stood out to him as the most terrifying.

Sunday Newsday also spoke with Fuad Abu Bakr, son of the leader of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr.

Bakr said while he was only a child at the time, he remembered seeing his father on television announcing the overthrow of the government.

“I was five-yearsold.

All I remembered was seeing my father that evening but then I didn’t see him again until he was on television.

I was at my maternal grandparents’ house. At the time, I didn’t grasp the seriousness of what was going on. It was only later on after the coup played out I realised how serious this was.”