[UPDATED] Pregnant woman shot dead

TWO of Annette Greaves’ six children have been killed by the police. The more recent was her pregnant daughter Ornella, who was shot once in the abdomen while recording protests on Tuesday morning. She died at the Port of Spain General Hospital while being treated.

The first child Annette lost was Christopher Greaves, who was shot dead in 2013. He was 25. Annette said she is still waiting on justice for that killing and will now add to her request list her daughter’s name: Ornella Greaves, 30. Both were shot near their Beetham Gardens home.

Ornella lived at Fourth Street, Beetham Gardens. At the time of his death, Christopher lived at Fifth Street with his parents. Police reports said Ornella was among a crowd of Beetham residents near Ninth Street, parallel to the Beetham Highway, protesting the shooting deaths of three men in Morvant. Some residents opened fire on the police, killing Ornella and injuring a man, Trevon Mc Intosh.

Residents said that version of events was untrue and the two were shot when a police officer opened fire, on the crowd who were throwing debris into the road. One resident told Newsday she believed the officer assumed he had loaded his gun with rubber bullets.

Ornella, the mother of five children, ages between one and 14, was at least three months pregnant. Annette only found out on Tuesday after she heard her daughter had died. Ornella was friendly and loved to cook and clean, and was always there for her family, her mother said.

“We will be going to police complaints (Police Complaints Authority) and I will go and start from there. No money can’t bring back life, but justice must be done to the rogue police in this place,” Annette said. “Protests will not bring back my daughter. I want justice with the police who shoot my daughter. Police just shooting like Wild West, and some of them not speaking the truth.”

Asked how sure she was that she would receive justice for her daughter after waiting seven years for justice for her son, Annette said: “I ain’t get no justice yet! If I ain’t get justice I know God will give me my justice, because he not sleeping. You see prayers, prayers is my only thing. I have to call out to he, because he is my maker and he say to bring everything to him.”

Annette emphasised that to her not “all police bad” but there are rogue officers and Police Commissioner Gary Griffith must do something to address that.

“Gary needs to check his police and police them, and he know that there is rogue police. Police picking up for police and lying for police.

“But you see me? I am not fighting fire with fire. I will cry out to my God, because I know he is true and I will get my justice through him.” She said the police were meant “to protect and serve not to kill all the time! They have children and wife and mother. All of we is flesh, they say black (lives) matter, but it doh look like black (lives) matters any more. Come on man, it’s time for this stupidness to stop.”

Ornella’s husband Darren Joseph also commented on the killing. They had four children together and were expecting their fifth. “It hard to see I gone to work and hearing all these things going on. Up to now I haven’t seen my children because what am I going to tell them?” Joseph said, fiddling with a beer in his hand.

“I lost my woman and my child, boy! Nobody does give me anything and I doh ask for anything, and it sad to know this. I not doing anything wrong, I working for mine. And it sad to know I gone to work and come home to this. And nothing coming out of it!”

Joseph was not sure how he was going to tell his children what had happened to their mother. “I crying right through. I wish I could go home and meet my woman home. That’s all I wish today.”

Christopher Greaves was killed on August 31, 2013. Residents said then that he was gunned down on his way to a parlour on Third Street around 4.45 pm. Police said Christopher, who had no criminal record, had a gun and started shooting at the police, who shot back, killing him.

This story was originally published with the title "Woman dies after protest shooting" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

HOSPITAL staff have confirmed that a Beetham woman who was reportedly shot by police during Tuesday morning's protests has died.

Staffers said Ornella Greaves, 30, died while being treated at Port of Spain General Hospital.

Beetham residents confirmed to Newsday that Greaves was one of three people allegedly shot by police.
A video circulating on social media of the shooting "is being verified" by police.

Police told Newsday they had received information that a woman had been shot and they were verifying that information.

Residents of East Port of Spain, on Tuesday morning, staged protests throughout the city in response to the shooting deaths of three men on Saturday. The men, Israel Clinton, Joel Jacob and Noel Diamond, were killed by officers of the Inter Agency Task Force and Guard and Emergency Branch at Juman Avenue, Morvant.

Police claimed the men moved to shoot at them and in defence they opened fire, killing all three. Police said a gun was found at the scene.

Footage from a home security camera near where police killed the men appeared to contradict the police account.

In the video, three SUVs with police drive past a Nissan Tiida car on Juman Drive. The driver of the gold Tiida hatchback pulls aside and the police vehicles stop behind it.

One of the occupants emerges from the back seat of the car with his hands in the air, and the police seem to be speaking to the driver and the man who got out.

Moments later, someone inside the car lowers the right back window and it appears an object is pointed at the officers.