Scotland: Time to 'buckle down' on Tobago crime

MINISTER in the Ministry of National Security Keith Scotland says he is eager to “buckle down to some work” in Tobago.

Scotland is expected to meet with THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, head of the Tobago Division, ACP Collis Hazel and other security officials on August 12 and 13.

High on the agenda during his two-day visit will be strategies to address the escalation in gun-related murders and other violent crimes in Tobago. The island has to date recorded and unprecedented 19 murders for 2024, most of which the police believe are gang related.

The Port of Spain South MP, who was appointed as minister on July 25, with specific responsibility for police matters, said he does not want to make any pronouncements about Tobago’s crime situation but is ready to go “on the ground.

“I am really going there to work and when we done work, then we talk. I really want to buckle down to some work.”

He gave no further comment.

Confirmation of Scotland’s impending visit to the island comes as investigations continue into a shooting in Argyle on August 8, which has left a medical doctor hospitalised.

According to reports, around 7.55pm, Dr Iyana Parisienne-James, 35, and her daughter were in a Hyundai Elantra outside of Pablo Supermarket, Windward Road, Argyle. They were waiting for her husband, who was in the supermarket.

Suddenly, gunshots were heard and Parisienne-James was hit.

Her husband returned and found his wife bleeding from her right shoulder, but crouched in the back seat, covering their daughter.

She was taken to the Roxborough General Hospital and later transferred to the Scarborough General Hospital.

Sources told Newsday Parisienne-James was “stable, conscious and alert.”

Police said she was not the intended target.

WPC Bobb is investigating.

The incident took place three days after a Trinidadian woman was also shot in Argyle.

Victoria Guerra, 32, also known as Dolly Boss, was shot multiple times at Lammy Road, Argyle. She was taken to the Roxborough Hospital for treatment but died of her injuries.

That investigation is also ongoing.

The latest shooting in Argyle occurred hours after Augustine met with THA Minority Leader Kelvon Morris, ACP Collis Hazel and other security officials at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex to devise a strategy to address the island’s worsening crime situation.

Augustine, who regarded the situation as untenable, told reporters that measures are being implemented to minimise murders and gun-related violence.

But he warned that some of the strategies, particularly those involving stop-and-search exercises, may inconvenience commuters.

Augustine reiterated his call for communities to work alongside the police and other arms of the protective services to combat crime.

He also stressed that mobsters, gangsters and others bent on a life of crime are not welcomed in Tobago.