Dead is Jason Hernandez, 32, of Pleasantville located on the outskirts of San Fernando.

Police investigators said that at about 3 am yesterday, officers responded to a report of robbery at La Croix Street in Couva. On arrival they saw a gunman, later identified as Hernandez, along the street.

Police reports stated that Hernandez opened fire at the officers and began running off in the opposite direction.

A chase ensued and while running, he continued to open fire in the direction of the officers.

Police returned fire, shooting Hernandez dead along Railway Road in Couva, located a short distance away from La Croix Street.

An autopsy is expected to be performed at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James today.

Investigations are continuing

No one is entitled to live rough, he told yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony for aldermen at City Hall. “The whole question of street-dwellers in the city…no one has a right, an entitlement to live on the street, on the pavement,” Rowley said. “Those people who are on the street with no place to go ought to be made to go into those shelters.

If you don’t do that you end up with a situation like Chacon Street which at five o’clock every morning is an open sewer! It is one thing to talk about investment in the city and to do this and to do that, but if you turn a blind eye to some of the happenings in the city, there is no improvement in the quality of the city.” Rowley warned of a potential squatting sprawl at Queen’s Park Savannah. “As I speak to you now there is one person who is constructing and who is living permanently in Queens Park Savannah,” Rowley said. “And if you don’t do anything about it soon, by the time the next function of the city, you might be approached by ‘The Association of Queen’s Park Savannah Dwellers’. He explained why that person might be emulated by onlookers.

“When you allow something to happen or not to happen, other are looking on to see what is going to happen, and if nothing happens then you create a new aspect of our culture.” Rowley warned against undue sympathy for the Savannah dweller, saying, “And of course our culture is a culture (of) ‘How you could do the man that? Where’s the man going to live?” Warning the council of the hazard of relenting to such sentiments, he said, “And when you do that, you lead to a general deterioration and at the end of your term you’d have survived three years and you’d have made no improvement to the quality of life of the City of Portof- Spain.” He urged the council to have a vision for the city amid his proposed local government reforms, which can guide other corporations on how to boost residents’ quality of life.

“He was not a simpleton.

He is not a fool,” the judge said of Jawahir, as he told him that his acts on Easter Sunday April 12, 2009, at Manzanilla Main Road, near the 11-1/4 mile mark, would attract a severe sentence. Jawahir was sentenced to 18 years hard labour but the seven years spent in prison awaiting trial were deducted, leaving ten years and four months which he began serving from yesterday. Although the trial judge was critical of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for having the court embark on a Maximum Sentence Indication exercise prior to the trial, he understood why the State did not accept a guilty plea from Jawahir since the evidence at the trial painted an entirely different picture as to what took place on the day of the incident.

According to the prosecution’s case, Jawahir chopped Thomas four times with a cutlass, almost severing one of his arms, just after 7 pm on the day in question.

Jawahir was intoxicated at the time. Jawahir who was defended by attorneys Michelle Solomon and Trevor Clarke, never disputed that he chopped Thomas, telling police at the time that he did so to help out his cousin who was being beaten by Thomas.

He had also admitted to having threatened to planass Thomas with a cutlass. According to Jawahir’s defence, he saw his cousin being beaten by Thomas with a piece of wood. One of Thomas’ friends was also involved in the beating incident. It was at this point Jawahir intervened and chopped Thomas. But the judge pointed out that Jawahir would not have known what was taking place with his cousin and his friends but that he had, “gone looking for trouble and found it.” The events started off with one of Jawahir’s friends interfering with a crab that was thrown into the tray of the pickup in which Thomas and another man were hitching a ride. Justice St Clair-Douglas said although the court accepted a manslaughter verdict brought back by the jury, the court could not turn away from the nature of the injuries Thomas sustained, which were described by the pathologist as defensive wounds. The prosecution represented by attorney Stacy Lalloo Chong.

In his ruling yesterday, Justice Devindra Rampersad held that former Guardian reporter Anika Gumbs-Sandiford was wrong when she wrote that Creed had been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by the Integrity Commission to answer allegations of misbehaviour in public office.

In the article, Gumbs-Sandiford alleged: “Sport Minister Anil Roberts, his permanent secretary Ashwin Creed and special adviser to the TT Boxing Board of Control (TTBBC) might have had a case to answer as allegations of misbehaviour in public office against the three have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.” However, the Integrity Commission denied that report, saying Creed had not been referred to the DPP.

Justice Rampersad noted that the article – which was headlined ‘Anil faces DPP probe’, was defamatory, as he awarded Creed damages and exemplary damages for the injuries done to his reputation.

In his claim for defamation, Creed said he had an unblemished record of some 33 years as a public servant, and, “has been like Caesar’s wife, that is to say, beyond reproach throughout.” He said the Guardian article caused him and his family much anguish, pain and emotional distress. Creed was in court yesterday for the court’s ruling.

He was represented by attorney Peter Taylor while Frederick Gilkes represented the newspaper.

Reports are that at about 2 pm, three members of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment were occupants of the truck which contained the container. They were proceeding along the north-bound lane of the highway when on reaching the overpass, the top of the container came into contact with the underside of the overpass. On impact, the container slammed into a panel van driven by Lincoln Kissoon, of L. Kissoon Marketing and Distribution Limited based at Rambert Village in La Romaine. Eyewitnesses said that the truck dragged the van several feet before bursting the steel railings and coming to a halt in the median of the highway. The van however crashed into other steel railings.

Kissoon said he was left traumatised following the accident but was grateful to be alive. Kissoon recalled that he was on his way to deliver pharmaceutical products to businesses when the truck slammed into and dragged the van along the highway. No one else was in the vehicle. Police yesterday confirmed that there were no serious injuries and that the army officers were taken to the San Fernando General Hospital for medical check-ups.

Police explained that the container on the truck was too high and as such came into contact with underside of the overpass. The accident caused a massive traffic pile up and officers of the Highway Patrol Unit based at Debe and Couva Police Station who visited the scene had to divert vehicular traffic.

However, due to a large number of customers, the policemen opted to visit another branch to make the deposit.

Deonanan is posted at the Debe Police Post and was off duty at the time. The report added that at about 11 am, Deonanan arrived at the car-park of Republic Bank located along Michael Rahael Boulevard, Tarouba, (near South Park). As Deonanan was about to exit his vehicle, the driver of a silver Toyota Corolla Axio pulled up alongside the officer’s car. The driver, armed with a firearm, exited the vehicle and accosted the officer whom he robbed of 40,000 in cash. He fled the scene in the Axio. A report was made to the Mon Repos Police and investigations are continuing.

But the robbery was foiled as one of the security guards on duty ran straight to the Freeport Police Station and reported the matter. Eight gunmen left empty handed in their truck.

A police report stated that at about 1 am, eight gunmen went to the compound located at Calcutta Settlement Road #1 in Freeport off the Solomon Hochoy Highway.

They arrived in a truck. At the time, four male security officers aged 48, 38, 30 and 23, were guarding the compound. The gunmen tied up three of the guards while the fourth, who was on a foot patrol of the compound, on seeing what was taking place, ran to the Freeport Police Station and lodged a report.

Police said the guard, aged 30, was “breathless” on arrival and officers responded immediately and went to the scene. On arrival however neither the bandits nor their truck were in sight. Police had to untie the guards and a check revealed that no items were missing.

WPC Park is continuing enquiries.

Last Friday, this Courts store was officially opened.

This was the prevailing view from several persons who spoke yesterday at the funeral service for the 20-year-old Republic Bank Ltd employee eight days after she was murdered and her body stuffed in a shelf and hidden with cardboard boxes in a room on the third floor of the IAM & Co Ltd store on Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain. An autopsy on Sunday revealed that Banfield was smothered.

There was standing room only inside the San Juan Seventh-day Adventist church during the service.

Banfield was later laid to rest at the Orange Grove Memorial Garden in Trincity.

Banfield was described by speakers as a giant among believers, whose lifestyle was in every aspect an example of a believer of Jesus Christ. Every one of the six speakers who presented during her funeral service proclaimed that because of her service to her fellow man, in death she has been granted peace and is with the Almighty.

“For we know that if this earthly house we live in is dissolved, we have a building from God,” said Pastor Carlyle Scobie, as he quoted scripture: “an eternal house in Heaven, not built by human hands.” From as early as 8 am, mourners gathered at the church to pay final respects to a woman who was largely anonymous in life but became a national figure by the way of her death. Among those paying their respects were Imam Yasin Abu Bakr. Heavily armed police officers were on hand.

During the eulogy, Banfield was described as a model child and staunch believer in God. “If Shannon were here today with us what would she say,” asked Angello Toussaint, during her eulogy.

“I think she would have said the key is to have love for one another.

I have not died in vain and you must continue to minister the word of God. To my family, I love you unconditionally but I was sent here with a purpose. Wipe the tears off your face, and celebrate me as I have achieved what I came here to do. I know I will see you again, may the lord keep you faithful. Farewell.” Among celebrations of her life, speakers and members of the congregation also remembered the manner in which she died and spoke out against violence and crime. “It is not just the Banfields and the Toussaints (who are in mourning),” said a representative of Republic Bank.

“Look at how much innocent blood has been spilt. In Jesus’ name this nation must declare war on crime. This nation shall declare war on these heinous and unimaginable acts. We will take this nation back from today. We have to pray and cry and pray some more. We have to tell the lord that we are fed up of the violence.” On December 5 Banfield was reported missing by her mother, who was told earlier that day that Banfield was planning to go to Pennywise, and IAM & Co to do some shopping before she went to her Santa Cruz home. On Thursday last, Banfield’s body was found in the warehouse of IAM & Co under a pile of boxes.

A suspect who was released earlier this week, was yesterday detained once again by police for further questioning.

Police identified the man as Raffick Mohammed, 74, of Thomas Ross Road. Mohammed is said to be a relative of private for hire (PH) driver Norris Mendoza, whose body was found on Wednesday last in some bushes with multiple stab wounds in Moruga. Police were unable to determine if both killings are connected.

Police report state that shortly after midday yesterday a relative went to visit Mohammed at Tableland where he live in a wooden and galvanised shed.

The relative called out to Mohammed several times and later found the body of the elderly man inside the hammock with his hands and feet tied.

His vehicle was also reported missing. An autopsy is expected to be performed today at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James.

Fourteen received awards for outstanding performance with 20099 PC Quamina beinbg adjudged the “Most Outstanding Recruit” and receiving the Commissioner of Police Trophy and the “Best Stick.” Quamina was also awarded the trophies for gaining the highest marks in criminal law, and evidence and procedure. Welcoming the new police officers was Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams who reminded them of importance of integrity in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service “There is no compromise around integrity,” he said noting that without a 100 percent score on integrity, the TTPS will continue to face challenges and perceptions of public confidence and trust.

Dillon in the main address called on the graduates, which included 21 municipal police and 78 women, to go about their duties with integrity, transparency and patriotism.

He asked that they put their training to good use in the streets and to bring about peaceful resolutions to matters with which they are confronted. He assured that the resources for their jobs will be provided.