POLICE yesterday shot and killed two men, after being reportedly attacked at a house on Mendez Trace, Samaroo Village, Arima. The shooting deaths of the two men, identified by police as Kevin Thomas, 22, of Enterprise, Chaguanas, and Shadrack Beckles, 24, of Malabar, Arima, comes on the heels of a stern warning issued Monday to police by Second Division Association President, acting Insp Christopher Holder. “Don’t hesitate to shoot to kill in protecting your lives and limbs and also those of other citizens,” Holder had told Newsday in an interview Monday.
In yesterday’s police shooting death incident, police said officers of the Northern Divisional Task Force, along with members of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), went to execute a search warrant at the house for firearms and ammunition. The unpainted house is situated downstairs of what appeared to be an apartment building. Police sources said when the party of officers approached the house around 12.40pm, they were greeted by two men and a woman, the girlfriend of one of the deceased. Lawmen said one of the men was armed with a .22 pistol, while the other was armed with a cutlass. The man with the pistol reportedly fired shots at the police, after which the lawmen returned fire, striking both men. The two were rushed to the Arima Health Facility where they were pronounced dead on arrival. The 21-year-old woman who was with the two, was taken into police custody and was up to last night assisting the Arima CID with their investigations. Officers also seized a large quantity of marijuana from the house and the .22 pistol. Police sources said the two men were known to the police for banditry, while Thomas, was said to be wanted for a murder. At the scene yesterday, one woman told Newsday she overheard the police saying the incident was related to last Thursday’s shootout in Valencia.
Police, however, said they could not confirm this. The Valencia shooting incident occurred when Northern Division Task Force officers went to the area on information received relative to a plot to rob the Cross Country Food Traders Limited, Old Road, Valencia. Two shotguns, twelve 12-gauge cartridges and 15 rounds of .38 ammunition were seized. One of the shotguns, a 12-gauge Baretta repeater, has since been traced to one that had been stolen from dentist David Wong whose Nelson Street, Arima, house was robbed early May. The female Samaroo Village resident told Newsday that she heard approximately three shots. She said she knew Thomas, but did not know Beckles, adding that the two men had been in the area for approximately one month. “I feel they were hiding out here,” she said, adding she did not notice anything strange about them, however. Supt Farrel of the Central Division has been appointed lead investigator for transparency, senior officers said.
THE prostitute who allegedly stabbed 14-year-old student George Junior Langford to death last Wednesday was arrested in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
Sgt Valentine Millette of the Woodbrook Police Station was due to charge the woman last night with murder. If charged, she will appear today before a Port-of-Spain magistrate to answer the indictable offence. Police said around 10 am, the woman was walking along Queen Street in Port-of-Spain when an officer, Cpl Grant of the Woodbrook Police Station, held her. Police said the woman was in full disguise, wearing full Muslim garb with only her eyes peeping out. Lawmen said no one would have recognised her, had it not been for the watchful eyes of Cpl Grant. Police said Cpl Grant called the woman by name and she reportedly jumped. She was promptly arrested and taken to the Port-of-Spain Criminal Investigations Department. Police said the woman did resist the arrest.
The woman is alleged to have killed Langford on the night of May 28, the day of her 23rd birthday, at the corner of Alfredo Street and Roberts Street, Woodbrook. Langford, a Second Form student of Tranquillity Government Secondary School, was reportedly killed after an argument with the woman, allegedly over sex. The murder weapon was an icepick. Witnesses have told police that they heard Langford tell a woman that he had $80. An argument reportedly lasted for about five minutes during which time Langford reportedly cuffed the woman, who attempted to hit him, but missed. The woman then reached in her purse for the icepick then allegedly stabbed Langford once on the left side of the chest. He died on the spot. Langford’s relatives have since charged that the young man was not soliciting sex, but was returning from cricket practice at the Queen’s Park Oval.
A MAN who shot his uncle to death on Christmas Day 2000 went on trial for murder yesterday before Justice Paula Mae Weekes.
Kevon Nurse, 25, is before the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court charged with the murder of Lester Ash, a steelpan tuner and tailor at Ash’s apartment, Building 13, Success Village, Laventille. The main witness against Nurse is 12-year-old neighbour Aneka Shockness. In presenting the case to the jury yesterday, senior State prosecutor Wayne Rajbansee said evidence will be led on how the girl, now 14 years old, saw Nurse put a mask over his head and enter the apartment with a silver object in his hand. Then there were several explosions that sounded like gunshots coming from the apartment some time after midday. Nurse was also seen leaving with the mask over his head.
The State’s second witness yesterday was Michelle Primus, a neighbour of Ash who lives upstairs. She said she was in the washroom early Christmas morning when she heard a noise downstairs. On checking, she saw Nurse and Ash in a scuffle. Without saying or doing anything, she left and went back upstairs. In answer to questions from defence attorney Rudolph Martin, Primus said scuffles in the neighbourhood were not unusual so she did not take further interest in the matter. Brother of the deceased, Horace Nurse, testified that around 8 o’clock that morning, Ash visited his Barataria home and they both returned to Laventille where he helped Ash move four bags of clothing and a fridge to the third floor of the building. Hearing will continue today.
PENTAGON security guard Glen Forde succumbed late Monday to a gunshot wound he received on May 24, just one day after he celebrated his 32nd birthday. Forde’s relatives said they are neither pleased with the police investigations, nor with the treatment he received at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH), where the Pentagon guard died around 6 pm.
Forde, of Railway Road, Guaico, was shot early May 24 when four men, three of whom were armed, stormed Caribbean Steel Mills in Arima. The men stole a firearm and four rounds of ammunition from another Pentagon guard, Gerard Flanders. Forde put up a struggle with one of the bandits and during the struggle, he was shot in his lower abdomen. Although injured, police said Forde, who is married with a two-year-old daughter, ran after the men. It is alleged that as the men were running, Forde heard one of them shout to his accomplices that police were on the scene and they should leave the building. Yesterday, a Pentagon source said Forde recognised the voice of his killer and that this information was passed on to the police. They said nothing was done and the alleged killer left for Tobago last Sunday.
The Pentagon source said they are also convinced that the murder/robbery is an inside job because of information received. Forde’s younger brother, Gary, who also worked as a Pentagon guard but left after his wife expressed fears for his safety, was also critical of the police. Gary said his brother was not assigned police protection on Ward 21, where Forde had been warded. He said there was one police officer on the ward, but that that officer was assigned to a prisoner. “We spoke to the Arima police, but he got no protection,” Gary said. Gary also said that his brother began to bleed sometime on Monday and that when they informed hospital authorities, they were told that Forde was “OK”. Gary said his brother then started to tell them that he was “leaving”, but that he was going to put up a fight. Gary said prayers were said and that some time after, his brother started gasping for breath.
He said his brother was then given an injection and never regained consciousness. “They ought to have revived him first,” Gary said. Gary also said that his brother had been at Pentagon for the past eight years and that he had asked him to leave the job and do another job. Gary refused. Pentagon executive director Raymond Pariag said Forde was like a son to him and that he was very hurt. Pariag added that Forde is the second Pentagon guard to have been gunned down in one month. On April 24, Rajkumar Maraj was shot and killed at the Barataria arm of Health Net. Maraj was due to retire from his job. Pariag also said that the company will bear Forde’s funeral expenses. The Arima Criminal Investigations Department is continuing investigations.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning put in a special appearance in the Senate yesterday to announce Monday July 14 as the date for Local Government Election.
The date is just seven days shy of the July 21st constitutional deadline for the holding of the poll. The Prime Minister has barely given the Elections and Boundaries Commission the necessary five weeks period to prepare for the elections. PNM has completed its screening exercise and candidates are already out in the field canvassing voters.
In a statement to the Senate Manning however concentrated on Caricom matters, saying that one of the considerations for the date of the election was the fact that he would be out of the country during the period June 28 to July 6 to attend the Head of Government conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Manning in pointing out that it was the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas — which established the Caribbean Community — said among those attending would be the President of South Africa and Chairman of the African Union, Thabo Mbeki who would be making a statement at the opening ceremony.
Manning said the conference was taking place at a very important juncture, not only in the history of the Community, but also in global affairs. At the meeting, progress in the implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) would be considered. Manning noted that Trinidad and Tobago had committed itself to be CSME (Caricom Single Market and Economy) ready in one year and had already decided to establish a CSME Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to expedite the process. Manning added that particular attention would be paid to the free movement of persons and the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) at the meeting. The inauguration of the CCJ is expected to take place in Port-of-Spain in November 2003, he said.
At the conference Caricom Prime Minister and other leaders would also be updated with progress reports on assistance provided to Dominica, establishment of the Regional Stabilisation Fund and the Regional Economic Trade Support Programme, to the sum of TT $100 million, which would become operational in July 2003, the Prime Minister said. This programme seeks to increase Caricom Member States’ production and trade capacity, aims at redressing the current intra-regional imbalance of merchandise trade in favour of Trinidad and Tobago and would try to alleviate the impact of the downward slide that most countries have experienced in the last few years.
OPPOSITION Chief Whip Ganga Singh slammed Attorney-General Glenda Morean-Phillip for compromising ongoing investigations into alleged corruption at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and demanded her resignation.
Addressing a UNC public meeting at the Don Miguel Road Hindu Primary School on Monday night, Singh warned Morean-Phillip to stay out of ongoing investigations being conducted at WASA by Canadian forensic investigator Bob Lindquist and the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Police Service. “Hands off the police!” Singh declared. The Chief Whip said it was clear from Morean-Phillip’s statements in the media that “the AG has embarked on a deliberate course to compromise and contaminate the independence of the inquiry”. “The AG has overstepped the boundaries of her constitutional mandate and is usurping and subverting the investigative role of the police and the independence of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). “Clearly this is an AG who will compromise her office as guardian of the Constitution to protect her PNM colleagues. It is clear that she has cocoa in the sun in this issue.” he declared.
However Singh seemed to agree with Morean-Phillip that he gave no new information to Lindquist and the ACB. “Yes because it is the truth and when you are dealing with the truth, you do not vary the truth!” Singh stated. “Why is it that the police are not going to seize the documents at WASA? Why is it that the police are not going to seize the documents at Waterfarms? Why is it that the police are not going into the WASA accounts and following the money?” he asked. Claiming that the AG was “attempting to ride jockey” on the WASA probe, Singh said: “I want to tell her that she is going to get one hell of a water ride.” He added there must be no attempt to cover up corruption at WASA. The Chief Whip reiterated that former PNM MP Dr Joe Laquis could not stop him from speaking anywhere in the East-West Corridor.
HOUSING MINISTER Martin Joseph has said that “racial voting must become a thing of the past” in the Local Government elections.
He called on a crowd at a PNM meeting at the Pt Lisas Housing Settlement on Monday night “to shock the UNC from their complacency of believing that the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation belonged to them, and for this Local Government elections support the PNM, a progressive party that is concerned about development and the welfare of the citizenry at large”.
Joseph was speaking on a platform in support of PNM candidates in the July 14 Local Government elections for the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation — Rhonda Bartholomew-John (California/Pt Lisas), Andrew Hosein (Free-port/Calcutta), Vishwanath Parsan (Cara-tal/Tortuga), Peter Rodriguez (Claxton Bay/Pointe-a-Pierre), Radica Jagroop (Endeavour/Chickland) and Lancelot Smart (Felicity/Charlieville). Joseph said the candidates represented a “new breed of committed persons who could make a difference by delivering quality service to the electorate as against the UNC-controlled Corporations that have not been performing at all”. With respect to the California/Pt Lisas Electoral District, Joseph pointed out that the PNM did not lose by a large number at the last Local Government Elections “and it is time that we wrest that seat from them.” He said he was confident “race and ethnicity would not be an influencing factor in the elections and I am certain that the voters would exercise their judgment based on performance.”
He said one more electoral district was added to the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Corporation and the California/Pt Lisas District offered the party its best chance of winning a seat there. In the last election the PNM lost by 260 votes. “Let us work together to break the racial bogey at election time,” Joseph said. He accused UNC leader Basdeo Panday of making damaging racial statements that “Indians were selling themselves for positions in the PNM, and that was an act of “This Local Government Elections gives us the opportunity to prove that the PNM is the embodiment of racial unity, and is the only avenue for equal opportunity for all.” Other speakers included the candidates who are fighting seats for the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, as well as Joel Brent London of Belmont, Youth Leader of the PNM.
ATTORNEY Theodore Guerra SC, yesterday abruptly ended his questioning of former Housing Minister John Humphrey, after Humphrey threatened to reconsider giving evidence, saying he was being asked the same questions over and over and inferences were being made which he couldn’t tolerate.
He had to be advised by Chairman Clinton Bernard to “cool it”. Humphrey was being questioned for the third day yesterday by Guerra at the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport development project. Humphrey exploded following questions about whether contractor Northern Construction Limited (NCL) did work for free on the project which caused Humphrey to “toast” them as the best contractor in the country. Humphrey obviously offended, said Guerra was leading him to a point where he would have to consider if he should continue to appear before the Commission. He complained that the same questions were being asked of him over and over and said “I don’t have to sit here and tolerate this.”
Bernard calmly advised Humphrey not to lose his temper. But Humphrey persisted saying he knew exactly what Guerra was trying to do and he wouldn’t tolerate it. Humphrey said Guerra wanted to ask him two questions, which were whether he (Humphrey) was involved in any conspiracy to defraud the people of the country, or if he knew of any conspiracy to defraud the people. Humphrey said he would answer no to both questions and insisted that Guerra should ask him things he knew about. Humphrey later told the Commission that any question put to him which he was not engaged in personally or about which he had no first hand knowledge he would remain silent. Humphrey even joked that Guerra was pushing him to the point where he could become 40 years again. At that point after numerous assurances from Bernard that if Guerra went out of line he would put a stop to it, and complimented Humphrey on his invaluable contribution to the inquiry, Guerra announced that he had no more questions for Humphrey. Guerra said he had no intention of rejuvenating a geriatric and ex-pressed his gratefullness to Humphrey.
Earlier, Humphrey also voiced his objections to Guerra’s questions saying Guerra was trying to have him admit that NCL was a preferred contractor based on the fact that NCL got several contracts at prices above the tendered prices. Bernard told Humphrey that Guerra was entitled to ask him the questions but Guerra would not be allowed to harass him. He also reminded Humphrey that his attorney Sean Cazabon would re-examine him on matters which needed to be clarified. Humphrey also complained yesterday that the Commission’s junior attorney Margaret Rose was combatively prompting Guerra, “like if she’s fighting me”. Humphrey vowed to take Rose on. Again he was advised by Bernard that it was Rose’s duty to assist her senior. Guerra’s line of questioning to Humphrey was based on the CP9 contract to NCL. The inquiry will resume today at 9.30 am.
OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday claimed Prime Minister Patrick Manning will persecute the Indo-Trinidadian community similar to the Jews of Nazi Germany when the oil boom predicted by his government fails to materialise.
Addressing a UNC public forum in San Juan on Monday, Panday alleged that Government had already overspent the national budget by $2 billion and was hoping to “fill that hole with an oil boom that is coming”. “No oil boom is coming because Iraq’s oil, the control of Iraqi oil will be used as a big stick on OPEC’s back to prevent them from raising the price of oil,” he predicted. The UNC leader further prophesised that Prime Minister Patrick Manning will increase taxes to fill “the hole” but that too would fail. “When the economy starts to sink and they (PNM) begin to get into debt, they are going to spread more race,” he warned.
Panday declared: “When the German economy was in trouble, Hitler went and told the Germans, the Jews are the cause. They ended up murdering six billion Jews but they set the stage for their own demise, of the German people. They committed their own suicide. “Manning is prepared to do that. He is going to seek out one section of the economy and he’s going to say is them to blame. If you allow Manning to fool you as Hitler fooled the German people, then your fate will be exactly like the German people. You shall become the victims of war.”
Corporate Communications Manager at BWIA, Clint Williams, has denied reports in another daily newspaper that veteran airline executive, Nelson Tom Yew, will be officially appointed as the airline’s new Chief Executive Officer.
Williams also denied claims that current chairman, Lawrence Duprey, was expected to tender his resignation by the end of the week. “There has been no such appointment,” he said. “There has been no such activity. When these appointments do occur, the Board of Directors will make appropriate statements.” When questioned as to whether flights had returned to normal after the two BWIA planes which were impounded in Miami last week returned to service, he replied that for the most part they were running as normal, as well as on time. However, he admitted that customer confidence was still a “grey area. “It will take time for confidence levels to return to their previous state,” he said, “and we are hoping that it rises again before the summer — our peak period. “However, we continue to operate and hope that our customers base their confidence on reality,” he said. Yesterday, MP Ken Valley, the Minister responsible for BWIA, told the media that operations at the airline have been normalised.
