Relatives query early-morning shooting in Carapichaima - COPS KILL COUPLE IN BED

RELATIVES of Kern Fraser and Sheckeela Davis, who were both killed in a police-involved shooting on Waterloo Road Carapichaima on Thursday morning, say they intend to file a complaint with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) over their deaths.

Reports say police were searching the area for two suspects in a shooting incident.

They arrested one man at Mungal Trace, Orangefield Road, Carapichaima and based on the information received, they then went to Fraser’s home.

Police said when they entered Fraser’s home at around 4 am and confronted him, he was still in bed and allegedly shot at them from under a blanket.

Officers shot back, and when they lifted the blanket, they found Fraser and Davis with gunshot wounds.

Police say they also found an illegal gun.

Fraser’s family is disputing the police’s version of events and says the police’s actions have raised several questions.

As family members looked on while the blood-stained mattress on which Fraser and Davis were shot lay burning behind the house, a relative cast doubts on claims by the police that they identified themselves.

She said none of the other people living in the house heard them call out before they broke down the door.

“They never hear nothing about police come. All they just hear is shooting.

“Nobody never identify themself because, before, if they (police) came, they will come with a warrant and say, ‘Police, police, we have a warrant and we come to search,’ but nothing like that happened Thursday morning.”

Showing Newsday pictures of bullet holes in the bedroom wall, the relative said the police’s actions were “reckless” as Fraser’s family members were sleeping in the adjacent room.

“All of them living right there. They could have gotten shot because it’s just a wall that is blocking them off. It’s only gunshots they heard.

“They had to go on the ground and lie down because it was shots after shots they were hearing. They (police) kick down the door and just start to shoot. They never say police, and they never identify themselves.”

They say Davis’ death raises even more questions about the officers' actions.

“They say they didn’t even know (Davis) was under the cover and it’s only when they raised (the blanket) then they saw her on the bed. So if it was his daughter on the bed now?”

Relatives say the police’s story did not add up and asked why the police did not surround the house and give Fraser a chance to surrender.

“The two of them were sleeping. If somebody kick down your door, you going to jump up frightened and want to know what is going on. You not going and get up with a gun in your hand to shoot one time.”

They said they found it unlikely that police could have a confrontation with Fraser and not realise Davis was in the bed with him.

They said although Fraser “kept bad company”, he did not deserve to die in that manner.

“Me ent lying and saying he's a good boy. I know he like a little trouble sometimes,” said a relative.

“He's a loving person but ignorant at the same time. He don't take nothing lightly but he didn't deserve to die like that. Nobody deserved to die like that.”

Fraser’s family said young people who find themselves surrounded by bad elements should “check themselves.”

“Try and stay on a straight path because look what happened here, you follow bad company, bad things happen.”

“You live by the sword, you're going to die by the sword. If you live good, you'll be good,” said another relative.

They advised people to never give up on relatives who may have been led into a life of crime.

“We talk to him but we don't know what he was involved with. If something happened to him, we wouldn't really know what happened out there because everybody living in a different life.

“So check up on them often. Keep on talking to them because you don't know what is going through their mind. You can see a man’s face but you can’t see his heart.”

Meanwhile, Davis’ relatives questioned the police’s motives for the shooting and said they intend to file a complaint with the PCA as the circumstances “sound fishy”.

They asked how the police could “shoot up a whole room” without knowing exactly who was in the room.

Davis’ grandmother Carol Devenish told Newsday she had a premonition about her death.

Devenish said they last spoke on Christmas day while eating together, and they discussed her life and her choices.

“If I talk to you and talk to you over and over and realise you are a big woman and want to be on your own, then the most I could do is be glad for you to see if you could move on in life or be better.”

She said the next she heard of Davis was when she woke on Thursday morning from a bad dream in which a man was discussing what to do with two dead bodies.

Devenish said shortly after she woke up, a relative told her of Davis’ death.

This police-involved shooting comes on the heels of several others in recent weeks.

In a similar incident on November 28, officers of the Eastern Division Gang and Intelligence Unit shot Brandon De Gale at his home in Northeastern Settlement, Sangre Grande.

Officers say De Gale pulled out a gun from under a pillow and pointed it at them while they were executing a search warrant at around 4.30 am.

De Gale was shot once and police say they seized a .38 revolver, ammunition and marijuana from the scene.

His death sparked protests in the community for several days.

On December 17, a police-involved shooting at Courts Megastore in El Socorro left siblings Simeon and Siniaya Lessey dead.

The 34-year-old police officer involved in that incident, PC Sidney Roberts, who works at the Homicide Bureau of Investigations (HBI), has since been charged with murder and shooting with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

On December 18, Daniel Charles, who was wanted by police, was shot and killed by officers during a confrontation in Four Roads, Diego Martin.

Charles was wanted in connection with the December 12 murder of retired T&TEC employee Arnim Pompey.

This story was originally published with the title 2 die in police-involved shooting in Carapichaima and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post here.