Police, PCA probe police killing of prison officer

The police and the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) have launched investigations into a police shooting in Chaguanas last week in which two people, one of them a prison officer, were killed.

Newsday understands prison officer Joel Ramsundar and Venezuelan Alejandro Gonzales were at a house on John Street, at around 4.30 am last Wednesday when police from the Central Division's Gang Intelligence Unit went to the house to search for guns and ammunition.

Police said they were shot at and returned fire, killing both Ramsundar and Gonzales.

Two police officers were wounded in the shootout.

Head of the Prison Officers' Association Ceron Richards has since called for a "serious investigation" into the shooting by both the police and the PCA.

Responding to questions via WhatsApp on Monday, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith confirmed that all police-involved killings would be investigated.

"No investigation is 'non-serious,'" he said, "so this would be no different, especially when two police officers were shot and injured, with a bullet going through the stomach of one and the leg of another. They certainly did not shoot themselves, so it meant that persons shot at my officers and tried to kill them."

Newsday also contacted PCA director David West, who confirmed his agency has already bugan investigating the incident.

Ramsundar was a former soldier who joined the prison service in 2014. He was assigned to the Maximum Security Prison, Arouca.

While he was assigned to the Remand Yard a few years ago, he had to be relocated after his home was shot at.

Ramsundar was issued with a service weapon. Police said two guns were found at the scene of the shooting, one of them the licensed one issued to Ramsundar.