‘Murdered prison officer was threatened’

Prisons Commissioner Dennis Pulchan. FILE PHOTO -
Prisons Commissioner Dennis Pulchan. FILE PHOTO -

PRISONS Commissioner Dennis Pulchan confirmed that slain prison officer Sherwin Francis was threatened by an inmate weeks before he was killed. Francis, 48, was shot dead at his Oasis Greens, Chaguanas, home on Friday night.

Speaking with Newsday on Monday, Pulchan said while he did not want to speak too much on the matter as it was the subject of a police investigation, he understood that Francis was involved in a confrontation with an inmate over the use of a cellphone at the Golden Grove remand facility in Arouca.

“There was an incident where the officer saw an inmate with a cellphone and confiscated the cellphone. Threats were made by that particular inmate, but this incident did happen.

The person did threaten to kill Mr Francis first out of the other officers.”

Pulchan said he knew Francis as a recruit and commended him for his work ethic and commitment to duty during his career as a prison officer.

“He was a very strong officer.

“He was a man you could depend on and despite his no nonsense attitude he always guided junior officers to do the right thing. I’ve known him for the past 25 years and his attitude never changed.”

In 2018, 26-year-old Andre Nicholas Lavia from east Port of Spain, was charged for the murder of prison officer Devendra Boodooram.

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