SORT head, WPC to be put on ID parade

TWO members of the Special Operation Response Team (SORT), including the head of the unit, Insp Mark Hernandez, are expected to be put on ID parades on Friday.

Police said interviews with Hernandez and the policewoman, the only ones who remained in custody, ended on Thursday. The ID parades are expected to take place at St Joseph Police Station where the female officer was held. Hernandez is to be brought to the station.

Two other police officers were released from custody on Thursday night and early Friday morning. Hernandez and the female officer are the only ones to be put on ID parades.

The two subjected themselves to questioning on Wednesday and have been in custody ever since. Hernandez was interviewed for four hours on Thursday.

The SORT officers, along with other police officers, were questioned about the deaths of two murder suspects, Andrew Morris and Joel Balcon.

SORT held the two men hours apart on January 30 in connection with the kidnapping of court clerk Andrea Bharatt. Two days after the arrest, Morris died, Balcon died eight days later. Autopsies concluded they both died from blunt force trauma. Their relatives claimed police had beaten them to death.

Bharatt's body was found in the Heights of Aripo on February 4 after she went missing on January 29. Negus George has been charged with her murder.