Griffith stands by ‘one shot, one kill’

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has no intention of withdrawing his “one shot, one kill” stance.

“I am not changing my stance and there is nothing they can do to alter it. Anyone who aims a firearm and shoots at my officers, they have my full support to fire back and it is not to injure,” Griffith said, according to a statement yesterday from the TT Police Service’s corporate communications unit.

The top cop’s statement came as he criticised the headline in yesterday’s lead story in the Trinidad Guardian, which, he claimed, “is in total contrast to what is being said in the article by the person interviewed.”

The story headlined, Gary Wrong, featured an interview with force science analyst Michael Goodridge, who was commissioned to draft TT’s first “use of force” policy for the Police Service. The policy was reviewed five years later, in 2016.

In the article, Goodridge is quoted as saying Griffith may have been misunderstood when he used the statement “one shot, one kill.”

He also said Griffith’s use of the phrase may, on some level, be a matter of him revisiting his military training.

Goodridge said “one shoot, one kill” is a military training tactic, explaining the army’s “man in the window” training.

But Griffith, according to the release, said the newspaper’s headline, is in “total contrast to what is being said in the article by the person interviewed.

He questioned the motive behind such a headline.

“...Even if one person says he is wrong, the fact is that over 90 per cent of polls among citizens, including those in authority suggest otherwise.”

Griffith said, “certain persons, whatever their agenda, need to stop wasting time in propagating sensational headlines.”

The statement said: “....these foolish comments can do nothing other than cause police officers to have that one second hesitation, which can in turn, cost them their life.”

It added that Griffith “hopes this is not the intention and is reminding all officers to ignore those who are trying to tell them how to do their job or certain persons whose sole aim is to sell newspapers.”

The commissioner reiterated: “When you aim at a target, it is not to injure and police officers are all given regular training on ranges to ensure they practice at the marked targets in the eventuality of armed confrontation. For reporters who do not know, the targets are for head and chest shots.”