CoP: Police make mistakes sometimes in fatal shootings

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith - Jeff Mayers
Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith - Jeff Mayers

Police officers who shoot and kill people in the line of duty face possible criminal charges if they make the wrong decision in a split second when faced with a threat.

That was the view of Police Commissioner Gary Griffith on Tuesday when asked to comment on the recent findings by the Police Complaints Authority on two fatal police shootings which triggered outrage and claims of excessive force.

In the first case, in 2018, police shot and killed five young men at Rock City, Laventille. On June 27, police killed three men at Second Caledonia, Morvant.

Within the last month, the PCA submitted its files on the cases to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions with recommendations for criminal charges in both cases.

The second incident sparked days of protests in Port of Spain and other parts of the country after video footage appeared to show that the three men surrendered before they were shot repeatedly. Seven officers who fired their weapons that day have been sent on administrative leave. Eleven others have been assigned to desk duty.

Griffith said the public should not anticipate an outcome over possible criminal charges against the officers in both cases, since it was easy to analyse the scenarios after the fact.

He said on the field, officers had one second to react, and admitted "at times they may make a mistake."

He urged people not to come to blanket conclusions over all fatal police shootings, but to "cut us a little bit of slack," as police officers were under siege by criminals.

Griffith said the statistics show that every four to five days criminals shoot at police officers, and that would obviously be met with officers returning fire. He said each case must be examined on its own merit.

He warned criminals that if they shot at police officers, they should expect the officers to return fire, and that had "nothing to do with extra-judicial killings of using excessive force."

There have been over 50 fatal police killings this year, a sharp rise in the number of people shot dead in confrontations with the police.

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"CoP: Police make mistakes sometimes in fatal shootings"

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