Police misinterpret, denounce Newsday story

A statement from the police service seeking to denounce Sunday Newsday's lead story – 18 cops face arrest – has misrepresented the contents of the newspaper article.

The story reported on advice that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) gave investigators to arrest 18 officers linked to an incident in which police killed three people in Second Caledonia, Morvant, two years ago.

The statement, issued at 2.30 pm on Sunday, and shared on police social media channels, with an image entitled "fake news," was headlined: TTPS denies “misleading” media reports involving Morvant triple killing, IATF incidents.

The statement said the police service "denies that warrants were issued for the arrests of 18 police officers allegedly involved in the June 2020 Morvant triple killing and that six Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) police officers were suspended."

Nowhere did the Newsday article say warrants had been issued.

Rather, the Newsday report was based on the advice from the Office of the DPP to investigators to arrest the officers as the two-year homicide investigation nears a close and the victims’ families demand for justice.

Sunday Newsday also obtained a signed copy of a letter from the Office of the Commissioner of Police, dated July 9, 2020, and given to seven of the officers who fired their guns, killing three men on June 27, 2020, ordering the officers on "administrative leave," initially for three months, which was thereafter extended.

The letter said: "In the circumstances you are to cease to report for duty, pending the determination of enquiries resulting from allegations made against you."

Another 11 officers – also involved in the shooting – were assigned to desk duty. That decision resulted from the advice of the Police Complaints Authority to then commissioner of police Gary Griffith.

Newsday reached out to police public information officer ASP Sheridon Hill on Sunday to point out the apparent errors in the release. He said the release was based on instructions given to him and that he would get back to the newspaper.

Investigators on Sunday confirmed they had previously put an operation in place to detain their colleagues, but that had been thwarted after a major development which threatened to affect the case.

Acting CoP McDonald Jacob appointed a special task force, led by Supt Wayne Abbott, to investigate the police killings, which triggered three days of protests in several parts of Port of Spain, Laventille, Morvant, Sea Lots and Cocorite. They also prompted the Prime Minister to appoint a committee, led by Anthony Watkins, to go into troubled communities to find out the root causes of the adversarial relationship between residents and police, among other things.

The release on Sunday also referred to a report about police use of force in detaining two men at the Queen's Park Savannah, after the Jam Naked fete the week before last. Jacob claimed on Friday that one of the men was not kicked repeatedly in the head, but only once, and in the shoulder, according to a medical report.

The police release said investigations into both incidents are still ongoing.

"The public will be informed on developments into these enquiries via legitimate police sources as is customary," it said.

The 2020 shooting of Joel "Lion" Jacob, 38, his childhood friend Noel Diamond, and villager Israel Moses Clinton was captured on CCTV cameras and shared on social media shortly after it happened. The footage appears to show police emerging from four jeeps after a gold-coloured Nissan Tiida pulled over and stopped on Juman Drive, near the Auto Guru building.

Video footage showed the police driving past the Tiida. Several officers are then seen running towards the car with guns pointed at the occupants. One of the passengers, later identified as Jacob, got out of the left back seat with his hands in the air, and the driver, Clinton, was also seen with his hands in the air over the steering wheel. As the third man, Diamond, who suffered from a disability, lowered the right back window, police opened fire, killing all three men.

One officer was seen apparently retrieving spent shells from the ground while another reversed the Tiida, which had rolled forward during the gunfire.

The officers, who were assigned to the Inter-Agency Task Force and the Guard and Emergency Branch, both based at Aranguez, were on patrol in Morvant, where one of their colleagues, PC Allen Moseley, had been shot dead about 12 hours before.

Relatives of the dead men and residents of Second Caledonia intend to host a memorial in their honour on Monday calling for the investigation to come to a close.