POLICE Second Division Association president, Acting Insp Christopher Holder yesterday issued a stern call to all members of the police service: “Don’t hesitate to shoot to kill in protecting your lives and limbs and also those of other citizens.” Holder was responding to the shooting of Special Branch officer, PC Dereck Nelson, who was shot during a robbery incident Saturday night in Couva. The officer, who had been assigned bodyguard to High Court Judge Herbert Volney, was relieved of his firearm, cash, ammunition and jewelry.  The 37-year-old officer is said to be improving at the San Fernando General Hospital. However, relatives told police that officer Nelson, of St Augustine, is in exteme pain and is still on life support. He reportedly underwent surgery to stop internal bleeding, police said.

Holder, in a telephone interview, said the association will commit its resources towards a serious and forceful counter assault on all bandits in the country. “We will close ranks in destroying the criminal menace,” the association president stated categorically. This, he said, means that all officers in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) will combine efforts. “All police officers will be as one,” Holder said, adding that he will be advising all officers to be extremely alert.  Holder added that the association stands firmly behind all their members. “They will have all the support whenever they have to engage in such activities,” Holder said. Asked if members of the public were to cry police brutality, Holder said he preferred not to comment. “I have made a statement and I stand by it,” he said. Meantime, senior officers of the Central Division told Newsday yesterday that they were pursuing several leads in the shooting of Nelson. A party of officers from the Port-of-Spain Division headed by Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes also revisited the scene of the shooting on Milton Road. However, up to late evening no arrests had been made.  Investigations are continuing.

ASSASSINS claiming to be police officers shot and killed a 21-year-old man as he slept in a bed in an apartment on Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain, early yesterday morning, police sources said. Before they snuffed out the life of Jerryl Wiltshire, the assassins said: “This is the police. Where is Jerry? He(Jerry) only killing people and we come for him.” Senior police officers say they believe there is a link between Wiltshire’s death and that of San Juan resident Steve Hall, who was also shot as he sat in his vehicle on Nelson Street on Friday.  However, police sources were unable to say what the link is. It was around 1.30 am yesterday that Wiltshire’s sister-in-law, Nikeda Drakes was asleep in the living room area of their small Nelson Street home. She was awakened by the sound of a man saying “police open up.” She told Newsday that the man was at an open window in the living room, and wore a mask. She said she ran to a corner of the living room and hid.

Nikeda then called her mother, Jennifer Drakes, who came out and said to the man that if he was indeed the police, he should take off his mask. “I told him that he was a bandit,” Jennifer, 48, a part-time worker at Service Commission, said. Afterwards, Jennifer said, she ran inside a bedroom and told her children to hide under a bed. There were seven people in the room, among them three children, ages 5, 7 and 14. The armed man then placed a firearm through the bedroom window and fired two shots into the room, all the time telling family members that they should open the door. One of the bullets struck a wall. Not satisfied, Jennifer said a man (she could not say if it was the first man), went to another bedroom, in which Wiltshire, a National Housing Authority (NHA) worker, was asleep. His 24-year-old common-law-wife, Natalie Drakes had already fled that bedroom after hearing the commotion.

Jennifer said the man put his gun through the open bedroom window and shot Wiltshire once in the neck. Her son-in-law got off the bed and ran into the kitchen area, where he collapsed and died. The assassins then fled the scene, reportedly in two vehicles. A report was made and a party of officers from the Port-of-Spain Division headed by Insp Manechand Ramnarine, and including Sgt Valentine Millette and Cpl Michael Bridgeman visited the scene and conducted investigations. District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Mootoo pronounced Wiltshire dead. A post mortem performed yesterday by pathologist Dr Eastlyn McDonald-Burris revealed Wiltshire died from a single gunshot wound. Jennifer said Wiltshire had been staying at her house for approximately three months, when her daughter, Natalie, first started seeing him. “He was a very nice person and everyone loved him,” she said, unable to say whether or not Wiltshire was involved in any killings as the gunmen charged. Jennifer said Wiltshire previously lived at Wharton Street, Laventille, but could not say why he left his home in the first place.  She added that she is fed up of the crime situation on Nelson Street, saying that she has seen so many bodies fall via bullets. No arrests had been made up to late evening and Cpl Bridgeman of the Besson Street Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is continuing investigations.

Conrad Aleong, President and Chief Executive Officer of BWIA, officially handed in his resignation yesterday to the Board of Directors of the company. A release from the Board recorded its “deep appreciation and sincere gratitude for the yeoman service rendered by Aleong to the airline.” “Mr Aleong steered the activities of the airline through three years of sustained profitability, while at the same time achieving a modernisation and fleet renewal programme,” it said. When contacted, Corporate Communications Officer at BWIA, Clint Williams, confirmed the reports. However, he refused to say any more, noting that the Board would issue releases as the situation progressed.

Responding to a statement that Prism Services, which is also responsible for Magna Card, has taken over the BWEE Miles account from RBTT, Williams revealed that Prism had indeed been sub-contracted to handle the data analysis of the system, ensuring that it was up-to-date. He said, “We are looking at methods of cutting costs as well as for a system which would offer increased efficiency. Prism already had such a system in place.” A representative of the BWEE Miles centre confirmed these reports, also revealing that BWIA was no longer paying the employees attached to the centre. Prism was now responsible for this. He said, “The decision was made to outsource the programme due to the financial strains of the company.” However, according to a source from RBTT, the bank had, to date, received no information with regards to that statement.

“We have not received any official statement from BWIA thus far,” he said. “There has been nothing concrete. As far as we know, we are still handling the BWEE Miles account.” Williams was unable to respond to this, noting that he needed to look further into the matter. The manager at Prism could not be reached for comment.On March 15, BWEE Miles was relocated from Sunjet House to a new building and a new contact number was released to the public. Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ken Valley’s initial response was that he had no comment. Pressed further, Valley said he was informed that Aleong had resigned since last week while he was in Guyana. He added that he received written confirmation of this yesterday afternoon after he returned from a meeting of the Energy sub-committee. “I have no feelings (about Aleong’s resignation). The important thing is to try and do our best for the airline. My colleague (Keith Rowley) did an excellent job in my absence,” he stated.

JUSTICE HERBERT Volney said yesterday he is praying for the recovery of his injured bodyguard PC Derrick Nelson, who was shot five times near a bridge in Couva and left for dead on Saturday night. “He is a man in the cradle of God’s hands,” a solemn Justice Volney said. The judge expressed concern for his bodyguard, taking a brief moment from proceedings in the San Fernando First Criminal Assizes as attorneys at the bar inquired about the officer’s condition. “He seems to be in a great deal of pain. I could only tell him that my prayers are with him at this time,” Justice Volney said. Yesterday San Fernando General Hospital authorities implemented restrictions on visitors to the critically injured policeman. Even police colleagues were turned away from seeing PC Nelson, as he lay on a hospital bed with IV drips connected to his body. However Justice Volney was allowed to visit his bodyguard yesterday.

PC Nelson, who is attached to Special Branch,  had been assigned to Justice Volney for the past six years. Justice Volney told Newsday he was informed that Nelson underwent “life-saving” surgery on Sunday night and was “a long way from recovery.” PC Nelson underwent a colostomy since the bullet wound to his groin resulted in perforation of his bowels. Doctors are also trying to stablise his condition before attempting to repair the fractures to his  legs. Nelson began working as Justice Volney’s police escort in 1996 during a prominent High Court murder trial. On Saturday night, however, the 36-year-old policeman was the victim of a brutal attack by bandits. He managed to escape by jumping off a bridge, landing 20 feet below into the Couva River. Nelson was driving along Milton Road, Couva, when bandits shot at his vehicle and forced him off the road. They robbed him of his loaded nine millimetre service revolver, cash and jewelry. Passersby rushed the policeman to the Couva District Hospital and he was later transferred to San Fernando General Hospital. Up to late yesterday no arrests had been made and Couva police are continuing investigations.

TWO MEN were injured and a young woman left homeless after a loaded three-tonne delivery truck crashed into a house at Geranium Drive, Coconut Drive, Morvant yesterday. The two men were up to late yesterday warded at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) nursing serious injuries sustained in the accident. Reports stated that around 12.05 pm yesterday, a three-tonne truck from Bhagwansingh’s Hardware was making a delivery at Geranium Drive, Morvant, when the driver Azad Mohammed, 52, of Southern Main Road, lost control of the vehicle. He was in the compnay of Winston Kalien of San Raphael. The three-tonne truck was proceeding south along Geranium Drive Extension, when Mohammed reportedly tried to apply brakes, but did not get any response. Mohammed lost control of the truck, which drove about 300 yards down Geranium Drive, crashing into a recently constructed concrete house owned by Avalon Pritchard.

The vehicle then flew off an embankment, landing about 40 yards from the point of impact, before smashing into an electricity pole and an empty white Toyota Crowne, which was parked on the side of the road. The impact, caused a blackout of electricity throughout Geranium Drive. Residents of Geranium Drive came to the rescue of the two men and had to extract Mohammed, who was pinned behind the steering wheel of the vehicle. Kalien was thrown through the windscreen and is said to have suffered serious facial and head injuries, while Mohammed received body injuries. Both men were rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital via an Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulance. Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Pritchard said that she is very fortunate to be alive today. She said she was at home for the entire morning and decided to go into PoS just before lunch-time to conduct some business. She said she locked her newly constructed home, which consisted of living quarters and a garage, and went into POS. When she returned, she found her house completely destroyed, with her entire roof resting in the road to the bottom of the embankment where she lived.

She said that although she is very happy to be alive today, she is wondering where she is going to live now that her home has been destroyed. Pritchard said that she tried to find out from the Bhawansingh representative what they were going to do to assist her with her living arrangements, but he told her that he was not the person to deal with the situation, and that someone from the company would call her. She said, “I lost everthing I had in there. “My television, my radio, stove and my home. Everything gone. Now I have to start all over,” stated Pritchard. Owner of the white Toyota, Legon Robinson, stated that he was doing some business in a bank in PoS when he received the news of the accident. He said he rushed home to find that his car was completely smashed by the delivery truck. He said he is still awaiting some word from the company on the damage done to his vehicle. Cpl Roy of the Morvant Police Station is continuing investigations into the accident.