485 murders for the year

A total of 485 murders have been committed for the year.

This statistic was revealed on Wednesday, at the 9th sitting of the House of Representatives on in Parliament, by Minister of National Security, Stuart Young.

When young revealed the numbers, the toll was 480. He also noted that the night before a man was shot dead while in hospital by a gunman.

Four other people were killed since he made the statement raising the toll to 485.

Young was speaking during the debate over the 2019 Bail Amendment Bill.

“TT is facing very difficult times when it comes to crime it is one of the main issues for TT today as it has been for the past few years. All the 41 members of this house can do while sitting here performing our duties is pass legislation. Hopefully on every occasion, regardless of the side of the house we sit, we all have one aim which is the aim of passing good legislation for the people of TT.”

Young thanked the security services for their tireless work and lauded them for continuing to put their lives at risk on a daily basis. He said it was the police who approached the Ministry of National Security, asking them to lobby for the amendment.

Young added more statistics to the murder toll, which he got from the TTPS

He said up to November 25, more than half of the murders for the year, (261 out of 485) have been listed as “gang related.”

That number is a combination of gang-related killings, drug-related killings and revenge killings.

He added that there were increases in murders in the PoS Division, Western Division, the Northern Division and the North-Eastern Division.

“We need to make it harder for the criminal elements to terrorise us,”

Young added more statistics saying for the first time in years, the number of firearms seized has reduced.

He said there were 735 illegal firearms seized as compared to 897 last year; and there were 10,305 rounds of ammo seized, when last year there were 15,556.

He knocked the opposition’s argument of being more vulnerable to be framed by police, and called the amendment a narrow reduction of the right to bail. He even added that someone could still access bail, if they applied to a high court judge.

“All this bill is doing is stopping people in the first instance without a prior conviction or charge who have in their possession artillery, automatic firearms, a grenade, a bomb or other missile, no bail for 120 days,” Young said.