Coast Guardsman on murder charge

The 29-year-old Princes Town man was brought to the court by police late yesterday afternoon and made a quick appearance before JP Eugene Prince, who read the charge to him.

Twenty-five-year-old Moham-med, a fisherman and father of a 13-month-old daughter, was shot in the head and shoulder while fishing in the Gulf of Paria on July 28.

He was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he remained unconscious and in critical condition until he succumbed to his injuries on August 4.

Mohammed’s death triggered several fiery protests by his family members and friends, who vowed not to let the matter be passed off as an accident and swept under the carpet.

Just before he died, angry Charlieville residents, where Mohammed lived at Francis Lalla Road, Extension, gathered at the Uriah Butler Highway near Chief Brand Products to protest the shooting.

When the news of his death reached the residents, officers of the Chaguanas police station were called out to disperse the large rowdy crowd.

The last protest was staged at Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain on August 20.

According to a statement by the Coast Guard yesterday, police received instructions to lay the charge against Allum earlier this week from Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Browne-Antoine.

Allum reportedly surrendered to officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations yesterday morning, after which the warrant was executed upon him.

He is scheduled to appear before Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls at the city’s Eighth Magistrates’ Court on Monday.