Cops hit dead end

More than a month has passed and no one has been arrested in the incident in which Jovelle Caesar was run over by a red Toyota Cressida on Carnival Tuesday. Jovelle was dragged from Green Corner at St Vincent and Park Streets to Mother Nature’s on Abercromby Street. He is still hospitalised in the Children’s Surgical Ward at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, after sustaining severe injuries to his body. He has two broken legs, a broken arm, and a collapsed lung. He is now off of the respirator and heart monitors. “I am doing good,” Jovelle said. “I also miss my family.” He told Newsday that he spends most of his time watching television and eating hospital food.

Jovelle’s mother, Janice Joseph, a mother of five children, is still hoping for the culprit to hand himself over to the police, and for justice to be served. On Carnival Tuesday night, revellers claimed that people were “wining” and “hitting the vehicle,” causing the driver of the car to come out of the vehicle with a baton in his hand. He then got back into the car and drove through the crowd, hitting a few people, and dragging Jovelle under the carriage of the car. Sergeant LeCointe of the Central Police Station, who is leading the investigation, told Newsday that no eyewitness has come forward, and he has no suspects. He has also visited Jovelle at the hospital to make enquiries into the matter.

The investigating officer said that he had gotten a licence plate number from eyewitnesses in the crowd, but the licence plate number turned out to be unregistered at the Licensing Office. Other eyewitnesses said the number given to the officer was not correct, except for the description of the car. Eyewitnesses at the scene of the accident, who assisted 11-year-old Jovelle, said the red Toyota Cressida had body work on the left side of the car, and a front light was missing. Jovelle told Newsday that all he could remember was the colour of the car. A number of persons in the crowd claimed a police officer ran over Jovelle.

“He came out with a baton and before that, a police jeep was driving in front of his car,” one eyewitness claimed. Traffic Branch officers, who refused to give their names, said only certain vehicles were permitted to drive in the Port-of-Spain area on that night. “You need a pass to come in and out of Port-of-Spain. It is a precedent set by the Ministry of Works,” one officer claimed. He added that in addition to police officers, business owners, mas designers, private personnel and food vendors have passes. Eyewitnesses at the scene said they believed the suspect to be a police officer because the driver of the car came out with a baton in his hand, and some claim that officers had apprehended the driver and he was released at the same time. “Not only police officers carry a baton,” said the officer.