Griffith: TTPS doing all it can

HOURS after the murder of theatre arts veteran Raymond Choo Kong on Monday, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith issued a press release saying the police were doing "all in its power" to peg back on the murders.

Between Sunday and Monday, eight murders were committed including one incident which saw three people being shot dead in Laventille.

Griffith said the TTPS was "sparing no effort" and doing all that can possibly be done to peg back the recent spike in homicides. He pointed out that prior to the eight-murder spree, there was a three-day period in which not one murder was committed in the country.

Griffith said a number of "key policing strategies" have been implemented with immediate effect and will continue over the coming days. These include detention of suspects in shooting incidents for questioning; every available police officer being out on the streets for patrol purposes;

All Emergency Response Patrol Vehicles being deployed for patrols; officers on days off being called out to duty; officers called upon to perform additional hours of work; roadblocks and stop and search exercises; joint police and army patrols and ramping up of intelligence-gathering initiatives.

He confirmed that as of Monday evening, there were 280 murders for 2019 thus far as compared to 302, for the comparative period in 2018. Efforts to reach Commissioner Griffith via his cellphone for further details and for his views on the murder spree, were futile. Efforts also to reach National Security Minister Stuart Young on Monday, for comment, also proved futile as calls to his cellphone went straight to voicemail.