While investigations continue and no one has been arrested for the murder, Newsday yesterday spoke to 21-year-old Donnavan Hinds in the presence of attorney Alexia Romero out of Regius Chambers on Richmond Street in Port-of- Spain, said that he wanted to make it publicly clear that, “under no circumstances did I have anything to do with the murder of that woman.” “In God’s name, I hope everything works out (with the investigation) because I am innocent,” Hinds insisted as he spoke in the presence of his lawyer. “If I were guilty, I would not be coming here or putting myself through the trouble of going to the media and contacting a lawyer,” he stated.

Hinds told Newsday that on the day of Francis’ murder, he heard the gunshots as he was located a short distance away near his home, where he was heading to after completing his daily business in the city. After hearing the volley of gunshots, Hinds said, he hustled home and stayed there for the rest of that day. The next morning, concerned neighbours approached him, saying they received word that police officers were looking for him in relation to the murder of Francis.

Hinds explained that Clifton Hill is a close-knit community, so if there was someone in the area who may be in trouble with the law, neighbours and fellow villagers would ask that person, “what was going on” in order to render assistance.

“Bright and early Saturday morning, someone came to me, showed me a picture and said someone have this picture circulating and police are asking for me,” said Hinds. “Other people started calling me during the day and enquired about different pictures being posted online showing me. One was with me next to a dead man, and people were saying that I was that dead man.

Another had a picture of me and a caption, ‘Donnavan Hinds, suspect, police mom’s murder.’ When I heard that, I decided to call my lawyer one time.” Hinds said his lawyer then contacted senior officers in the TT Police Service to enquire if her client (Hinds) was indeed a ‘person of interest’ in relation to the murder of Francis and she was assured that he was not being sought after in relation to that murder. But even as he was given this assurance, Hinds said that he was still being told “by persons on the ground” that the police were after him for shooting Francis.

Newsday also contacted senior officers in Port-of-Spain Division and was told that Hinds was not a a person of interest in the murder of Francis. Police sources added that the investigation is ongoing and statements are still being recorded from several persons. The source assured if at anytime a decision is made to bring Hinds in for questioning, they (investigators) will find him.

Francis was shot dead on Friday last at about 10.30 am. Police responded to a report of gunshots being heard along Picadilly Street and when they checked, they saw Francis slumped over in the driver’s seat of her Nissan Tiida car.

She was rushed to Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where she succumbed to her wounds. Francis’ son PC Dexter Dyer, his wife and other members of the family are now in protective custody.

Prior to Francis’ murder, her son reported a death threat made to him and his family.

Dillon held a two-hour meeting with Williams and the commanders of the two divisions, Snr Supt McDonald Jacob (Northern) and acting Snr Supt Kenny McIntyre (Central) to give them a clear mandate to re-strategise and bring down the murder toll.

For the same period last year, 367 murders were committed. Dillon told Newsday that following the triple murders in D’Abadie last Saturday, he was alarmed by what was taking place in Northern and Central Divisions, hence his reason for summoning the officers to a meeting yesterday. Dillon said the crime spree is not acceptable and every life lost is a concern to him and the Government.

He assured, “every additional resource will be deployed to ensure lives are saved and persons intent on ending the lives of fellow citizens will be flushed out and brought to justice.” He said society could no longer deal with the spate of murders and a clear message has to be sent to the criminal element that, “enough is enough and all lives are important”.

During the meeting, Dillon asked the top cop and his senior officers to put new measures in place to deal effectively with the spate of murders and also demanded results, telling the officers the public is equally concerned about their safety because of the killings. One of the main strategies, Newsday was told will be community policing meetings which officers will hold in various communities to foster partnerships and get persons to work with the police in the fight against crime. In the Northern Division, the first community meeting takes place Thursday while in Central Division a community meeting was scheduled for last evening in Enterprise, Chaguanas.

Newsday understands the message of the police will be for residents to reclaim their communities from criminals to make Trinidad and Tobago a safer place for all.

Williams along with Jacob and McIntyre vowed to deliver the necessary results and promised the public will see sweeping changes in the coming days which will benefit their communities in the two divisions.

The shooting deaths of Narine ‘Sharo’ Kalpoo and his wife Lutchmin ‘Bibla’ Jaggernath were the seventh and eighth murders committed within a three day period, between Friday and Sunday.

Kalpoo, 59, and Jaggernath, 51, of Kalpoo Avenue, Felicity were found at the scene the police. Kalpoo had two adult children from a previous relationship while Jaggernath had three also from a previous relationship. Police reports stated that shortly after 11 pm on Sunday, officers of the Central Division responded to reports of a shooting and discovered the bullet-riddled body of Kalpoo slumped in the driver’s seat of a Nissan Almera. Through the driver’s glass window, there were several gunshot holes.

A few feet away from the entrance gate of the couple’s home, Jaggernath’s body was found on the ground. She was shot in the head. Jaggernath, a seamstress and grandmother of two, was rushed to the Chaguanas Health Facility where she died less than an hour later. The couple together with Jaggernath’s daughter Tracy Jaggernath and her (Tracy) boyfriend had earlier gone to a cinema in Chaguanas where they watched a movie.

The couple dropped off Tracy and her boyfriend at a house at Pierre Road, Felicity, before they proceeded to Kalpoo Avenue where the incident occurred.

Yesterday, a relative of Kalpoo, speaking on the basis of anonymity, recalled that there were two Hindu weddings in the community on Sunday. As such, to celebrate the occasions there were lots of music including the loud sounds of tassa drums.

He believes that the killers used the cover of the tassa drumming to shoot and kill the couple.

Although police are yet to establish a motive for the killings, the relative insisted that it was a ‘hit.

“There were two weddings last night (Sunday) so I came home drunk. There were lots of noises and so I feel the killers shot and killed them at that time.

That had to be a ‘hit’ because they (killers) did not take anything. In this area you might find a duck thief, a fowl thief, an eddoes thief, but not a murderer,” the relative said. Kalpoo Trace residents noted that because of the weddings they were unable to hear the gunshots. Kalpoo’s two adult children and their (the children) mother all live in Canada.

“This is very shocking to all of us. We do not know what happened but ‘Sharo’ was a loving person. He didn’t drink (alcohol) or smoked,” said a relative of Kalpoo who also did not want to be identified. The couple lived together for about five years, Jaggernath having left her marital home at Pierre Road in Felicity.

Jaggernath’s estranged husband Indar ‘Tallboy’ Jaggernath, a fisherman, recalled that he went to fish at sea at about 2 pm on Sunday together with other residents.

They returned at about 7.35 am yesterday when a relative broke the news to him.

Her mother, Lystra Mayers, told reporters yesterday that the news of her daughter’s death came as a total shock, since her daughter never once mentioned that she was ever in an altercation or had been threatened.

“I just got a phone call that she was attacked and that I should come to the Point Fortin Hospital,” said Lystra Haynes, mother of the deceased. “By the time I got to the hospital, she had already dead.” According to reports, Mayers was last seen alive on Saturday night, after she had been liming with neighbours at Parry Lands, Guapo, in Point Fortin. At about 6 am on Sunday, neighbours were awakened by a shrill scream coming from Mayers’ house.

Concerned neighbours checked her house and found Mayers lying motionless on the floor in one of the rooms. She bore a wound to her head. She was rushed to the Point Fortin District Hospital, where she later succumbed to her wounds. The murder toll for the year now stands at 395, as compared to around the same time last year, which stood at 367.

Mayers’ murder was the last in a bloody weekend which saw about eight murders between Friday morning and Sunday night.

THE WEEKEND MURDERS
FRIDAY NOV 4: Felicia Dyer Francis, shot dead outside a Church on Piccadilly Street, Port-of-Spain

SATURDAY NOV 5: Frank Joseph, shot dead in D’Abadie Kevin Plaza, shot dead in D’Abadie Ricardo Singh, shot dead in D’abadie Zachory Roberts, murdered in Mt Lambert

SUNDAY NOV 6: Amanda Julia Mayers, beaten to death in Point Fortin.
Narine Kalpoo, shot dead in Felicity Lutchmin Jaggernath, shot dead in Felicity

If Hillary Clinton wins, America will, at last, have its first female President who will take office after its first black President. If Donald Trump wins it will be a victory for the so-called political outsiders.

A Trump victory, as feared as it is in some quarters, would be a reaffirmation of the American dream, showing that even a bombastic billionaire businessman can beat the odds – and the prevailing wishes of his own party – and make it into the White House.

Up to yesterday, polls were still suggesting it was a tight race, notwithstanding the dramatic twist in the email matter which saw a last-minute clearing of Clinton in the FBI’s probe into her use of a private server for public business.

For the last few months, the world has looked on as the candidates engaged in one of the most fraught election campaigns in American history. At times, some of it felt like a baffling mix of House of Cards, Scandal and Sesame Street.

We had Trump’s loutish conduct ranging from a call for a ban on Muslims, a Mexican wall and then resurrection of his “locker-room” views that he could exploit women because of his power. Trump also claimed Clinton invented IS (Islamic State), also known as ISIL, and deemed her a criminal.

Though his offences were many, his claim that the elections were “rigged” and his refusal to accept today’s result represented the moment when his rhetoric undercut the very fabric of America’s long and highly regarded tradition of peaceful transitions of power.

Meanwhile, Clinton has had to answer questions about her email practices from her time as Secretary of State. FBI Director James Comey, in one of the most baffling interventions in US politics ever, first cleared Clinton, but also criticised her as extremely careless. Then, he suggested fresh evidence that could potentially implicate Clinton had been discovered, a mere 11 days shy of the vote. The roller-coaster continued right up to Sunday when it was reported that the new cache of materials did not materially affect the outcome of the case.

Still, many felt the damage had been done. The flip-flopping of the FBI seemed to suggest a sitting President might one day be subject to a criminal probe. Indeed, there is a lingering feeling that Clinton’s emailgate threatens to follow her if she wins.

The political banter has been nasty and bruising, and America, still grappling with deep-seated racial issues played out in police killings of blacks, and anti-Muslim sentiment, will have to find a way to heal the wounds come tonight.

The result of the election will have direct implications for this country. The US is our most important trading partner, a major source of remittances, and politically, culturally and socially it has a profound impact on our region.

There will be far-reaching consequences for global stability.

A first female President would be a substantial boost not just for US women but women everywhere.

Here, we are fortunate to have punched above our weight in the form of a first female Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

A Trump victory would send the signal of a more insular America, something that is dangerous both morally and from a national security perspective. Whoever sits in the Oval Office will have a key role to play in setting the tone in the Middle-East, Europe, Asia and beyond.

It is hoped the vote will not come down to a slender margin and will not need to be subject to court action. In that regard, the US Supreme Court – which would have final say – seems to also itself be at stake in these polls. The world awaits.

While teachers are preoccupied with the delivery of curriculum with all its challenges and issues of student violence and indiscipline, it is quite easy to overlook the fact that some of our charges are crying out for our love, care and attention.

Those teachers who have had to endure the loss of a student would readily attest to the fact that such loss can sometimes be very difficult to accept and causes a significant amount of introspection.

What did I miss? What signals were being sent out that eluded me? What could I have done differently? Did my actions contribute to this child’s dysfunctional state of mind? Unfortunately, by such time it’s too late, making the loss even more painful. Coping with the loss of a student can be even more challenging considering that the teacher also has to help students cope with and accept such loss.

The theorists would insist that suicide is an extreme call for help and is usually preceded by distress signals. The challenge for teachers is to be able to detect these distress signals in the early stages and make the necessary intervention.

While we are not professionally trained to make such detections, we usually rely on our personal experiences and instincts to detect those one or two students in the crowd that are silently crying out for some form of attention. While this approach may work most of the times, unfortunately we do miss some of them.

There are many reasons why children may become suicidal.

Home circumstances are very often linked to children attaining this mental state. At school, the issue of bullying and the highly competitive nature of the school system have also been linked to children contemplating suicide.

When children feel they are unable to cope, especially so if there are deficits in their social, emotional and economic circumstances, this is seen as a desperate way out.

While children are wonderful in many ways, they can unfortunately be quite mean and uncaring to each other and the vigilance of teachers is necessary to rescue students who are victims.

Against this backdrop, it is necessary to remind all teachers that first and foremost we teach human beings and they are all unique. Some are instinctively stronger than others in terms of coping with the challenges of life.

It is important that teachers are willing to make time to reach out to those that are quietly sending signals of withdrawal and depression.

We must make the time to truly know all our charges and their unique backgrounds and circumstances.

In and through teachers all children must be able to see a sense of hope. Despair and helplessness must never be allowed to prevail in their minds, especially at school. School must provide the enabling environment for social satisfaction.

We must be prepared to truly talk to our children without judging them. Guidance must be the outcome of our innate love and sense of caring, even sometimes at great personal sacrifice.

Teaching, unlike most other professions, requires an understanding and appreciation that one gives unconditional love to all our charges. Reaching out to those that are weak and vulnerable is an integral part of our modus operandi.

While it is necessary to have internal and external specialised support systems to treat with such dimensions of human devel opment , teachers cannot escape the fact that we are usually the first step in rescuing vul n e r abl e children.

Sources said the container moved from the US Virgin Island to Jamaica and then to other Caribbean countries before arriving in Trinidad last week. Sources also revealed that all the documents found in the container were false including names and addresses.

Intelligence information gathered also revealed that a container with a similar amount of money also arrived in the country last week but appeared to have been cleared and the monies are now in the hands of the certain persons.

Yesterday, Minister of national Security Edmund Dillon told Newsday he was awaiting a report on the matter but added that because the police was involved in the investigation he asked for a report.

He confirmed that the amount of monies found in the container was over $2 million and a couple hundred dollars and added that the Central Bank may be called in to assist in verifying the authenticity of the money. The Customs and Excise department fall under the Ministry of Finance and Newsday understands that the Minister of Finance will also be given reports on the status of the investigation.

In the interim the monies seized will be kept at the Port-of-Spain at the Customs and Excise in a vault pending the outcome of the investigation.

Sources revealed that while Customs and Excise and the Police Service were being highly criticised for not carrying out a ‘sting’ operation last Friday to catch the perpetrator in the act of attempting to clear the container, the officers who received the information about the suspicious monies inside the container were not informed what was inside the container but were told to search for something.

According to sources they were not told that there was money inside the two blue crocus bags concealed between plywood, but were instead told that if they searched that particular container they will find something interesting.

“This is a big amount of cash which nobody would want forfeited, and we are looking on to see what will happen next, because the persons who lost this money will not take this quietly,” a police source said. Last Friday at 3.30 pm, a party of Customs and Excise officers along with police went to the Port Lisas port where a freight container was identified. Officers searched the container which was found to contain a quantity of plywood, some bogus documents and they also found two blue crocus bags containing over US$2 million US.

The monies were placed in an armoured vehicle and taken to the Customs and Excise department in Port-of-Spain where officers spent hours counting it before placing the case in a vault. Police have now engaged Interpol to liaise with their colleagues in the US Virgin Islands and also the US Customs and Excise Department in the Virgin Islands to assist in this high profile probe.

“Under that piece of legislation certain particulars that they must provide include the names of the workers, length of service, and the actual process used in selecting workers. “All that we have received from the company is a generic item of correspondence which we received last week Thursday indicating no names; just classifications, departments and numbers. We understand that they have effected the notices of retrenchment to the 33 workers so that our position really at this point in time is that we are awaiting the information from the company. This is why we have indicated that they are in breach of the procedure that they were supposed to follow under the RSB,” Als told reporters.

He said the union would take the necessary action at the appropriate time, but it is still awaiting relevant information from the company.

He said when the union receives that information it would then be in a position to engage in things under the law and other action it deems appropriate, dependent on the nature of the discussions that would take place. Als said 25 employees from the Express newspaper and eight from TV6 were sent home, including staff from editorial, advertising, pressroom, news and programming. He said that on December 4, 2015, the union received notice of the intention to send home about 60 workers.

He added, “We would have engaged discussions on that, and they would have had to take back a number of workers at that point in time. At the Express there has been a programme of attrition.

Over the last three years or so over 100 workers have gone from the Express in particular. What fuelled the return of some workers is that they were simply unable to engage the process of thinking in newspaper with the skeletal staff that they had so they were compelled to take back persons

Having heard a lot of his speeches and proposals on immigration, how he will deal with terrorism, and on economic proposals about bringing back jobs to America, Ragoonath told Newsday, it will depend on how far the Republican candidate goes in implementing his policies.

For instance, on the immigration policy, he said, “Does that mean that all undocumented Caribbean people will be sent back to the region?” If that is a case, he said, it is not only undocumented Mexicans who will be affected, if he starts adopting the policy of sending back undocumented nationals because many undocumented Caribbean nationals live in the US.

On the issue of Obamacare, he said, to an extent Caribbean citizens in the US will suffer. “I don’t know for sure how many will be affected, but I do know that a number of Caribbean nationals will be impacted upon.” In terms of dealing with terrorism, Ragoonath said, “if Trump decides that he is going to hold to put a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean nationals will be directly affected.” Many Muslims from the region travel to the US on officials and unofficial. “Does that mean they will all be left in the cold until Trump decides they can come or not?” he queried rhetorically.

TT was not necessarily safe from the influence of ISIS, he said, and the country may be looked at in a different light particularly as it relates to Muslims.

“We have to ask what does a Trump presidency mean for Trini Muslims,” he said.

The region does not know at this time what Trump will be presenting.

“We could only speculate at this time what he will want should he win the presidency.

We really have to wait during the post election period until inauguration. Then we will know what his initial plans are,” Ragoonath said. Noting that Trump has said that he wants to turn back the clock on various things that President Barrack Obama has put in place, Ragoonath said, “We don’t know exactly what he is going to turn back the clock on and how quickly. That will be our challenge.” Where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is concerned, he said, “She has made it clear that it will basically be a continuation of Obama’s policies. We don’t expect any major upheavals in terms of her presidency.”

I wanted to see the feedback.” Khan said he went to a party on Sunday wearing the t-shirt which read, “Donald Trump 2016.

Finally someone with balls”.

He said yesterday, “You would have been surprised at the response.

If people had knives there they would have stabbed me. Imagine that rubbish has caused so much furore. At the end of the day I got daggers and kudos.” He said when he asked why they were against him wearing the t-shirt, nobody could give him an answer.

When they said that, “Trump is a racist. Trump is a this and a that” and he asked them to provide the evidence, they could not.

He said that people were only supporting Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton because she is a woman, and because she will be the first woman President. On the other hand, Khan said, he was supporting Trump because he was a successful businessman.

“Everyone wants to support Hillary only because she is a woman. I have a mind to think how I want to, you know,” he said.

If he had worn a Clinton t-shirt, Khan said, “everyone would have said it was alright.

At the end of the day, one expects you to support a candidate because she is a woman.” Khan was once a Government Minister led by a woman Prime Minister by the name of Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Asked if supporting Clinton only because “she is a woman is disrespect for women,” Khan said, “If you want to interpret it like that, that is your choice. I am not just going to think how you expect me to think. We are still a democratic country.” He said that 90 percent of the people supporting Clinton are doing so “because she is a woman.”