Despite murders, accidents, cops report relatively incident-free Carnival

Carnival events throughout TT were relatively incident-free as police and defence force officers maintained a visible presence through all major boroughs and cities in all nine police divisions, senior officers reported.

Despite this there were several murders, road traffic accidents and robberies outside of the major events where police would have been present in large numbers.

Beginning early on Carnival Friday with the death of Venezuelan Josue Perdomo who was shot and killed by police in Barataria when he pointed a gun at officers and the murder of Rachel Logan in Siparia hours later, there were four murders, three shootings and six fatal road accidents.

Speaking with Newsday on Wednesday, senior police in the Port of Spain Division said with the exception of a few robberies and fights there were no major crimes between Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

"We had one or two reports of interactions between rival gangs in Port of Spain. There were the John John and St Paul Street gangs where there were some bottles being thrown but it was more or less quiet. There were a few robberies in the heart of the city but nothing out of the ordinary."

Other officers on the ground said no one was arrested for having glass bottles and considered the ban a success in reducing the severity of fights.

Senior officers said there were some reports of absenteeism in the Port of Spain Division as officers did not like the working hours they were assigned.

"We had some issues with (punctuality) because some of the officers weren't pleased with the split shifts on Monday and Tuesday so some of them opted to stay home. This will prompt an investigation if someone is on sick leave you can't penalise him, but it will have some enquiry from the administration on how we can avoid this in the future."

On Carnival Saturday afternoon a 25-year-old Laventille man was robbed at gunpoint by two men after he collected his gold chain from a jewellery store in east Port of Spain.

Police in the area saw the robbery and called on the men to stop.

The men shot at the police who returned fire. The bandits ran away, but police later found and arrested two men ages 24 and 25. The gold chain was also recovered.

On Sunday Joanna Hood, 31, was shot dead near her St Albans, Valencia, home by gunmen.

Her estranged boyfriend, a police officer assigned to the Eastern Division's Emergency Response Patrol was being sought by investigators.

That afternoon, the body of 45-year-old Nicole Hackshaw, of Trincity was found in the bedroom of an El Dorado home with a piece of wood nearby.

The owner of the house a Guyanese man was arrested by police who suspect he may have beaten her to death.

On Monday there were three reports of serious road traffic accidents in Morvant, Las Lomas and Manzanilla.

In the Central Division senior police reported a relatively law-abiding public for Carnivals Monday and Tuesday.

One officer said the police were able to clear the streets of Chaguanas of masqueraders and revellers within 10 minutes on Carnival Tuesday night and credited a heightened police presence for the success.

"We shut off the music in Chaguanas at around 11 pm and within 10 minutes everyone was off the streets. It's without a doubt one of the safest Carnivals we've seen in a while.

"We didn't have any fights this year, everything was really smooth. We had three reports of absence from officers but we had a really strong presence of police in both Chaguanas and Couva, we distributed our strengths well and we saw the results."

Despite this a Sea Lots man was shot and wounded in Chinese Trace, Enterprise, Chaguanas on Carnival Monday morning.

Police said the 27-year-old man was shot on his right elbow but he was treated and later discharged from the Chaguanas District Health Facility.

Two hours earlier at 10.30 am a St James man was shot and wounded when he attempted to escape from bandits who tried to rob him along the Diego Martin Highway, Diego Martin.

The 35-year-old man was shot in his right heel and left thigh. He limped to a nearby police station and was taken to the St James Infirmary for treatment.

Also in the western division two men were arrested in relation to reports of card skimming when the vehicle they were travelling in was stopped by members of the police ABM Task Force.