CoP announces reopening of Brasso Police Station after Tabaquite murder

Maxwelo Chancellor, whose son Mathew, 21, was brutally gunned down by a shotgun-toting bandit in Tabaquite on February 15, says the police’s decision to reopen the Brasso Police Station makes him feel Mathew’s death was not in vain.

Speaking with the media on February 17 after identifying his son’s body at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, he made a public appeal to the police to reopen the station.

Hours later, acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Junior Benjamin, at a police media briefing, announced the station will be reopened next week.

Mathew, his brother and two cousins were liming at a bar when a fight broke out nearby. They decided to leave, but while they were walking home, a car pulled up nearby and gunmen got out.

When they announced a robbery, everyone ran off in different directions.

They heard gunshots and later found Mathew with gunshot wounds, lying on the ground behind a villager’s house.

Autopsy results say he died from shock and blood loss consistent with gunshot wounds.

The next day Tabaquite residents threatened to protest in front the Ministry of National Security in Port of Spain if the Brasso Police Station was not reopened.

They said Mathew’s death was the culmination of a series of violent incidents including four other robberies within 24 hours.

Two home invasions were also reported within the past four weeks, including a case involving a 75-year-old man and his four wives who were tied up and robbed at gunpoint.

Benjamin said he has heard the residents cries and acknowledged their claims of an increase in violent crime in the area.

“Early next week we will be opening the station. I have spoken to the ACP and the senior superintendent for the area and we have put the necessary things in place to ensure the station will be up and running.”

Benjamin said he expected the station will bring relief and reduce crime.

“The very presence of the police will seek to have a reduction in crime and take away some of the fear of crime, as we seek to ensure that we police TT and give that level of safety and security to our citizens.”

Chancellor said this is the only positive thing to come out of his son’s death.

He added although he felt Mathew did not die in vain, he still wants justice.

“This can’t rest just so. The place real gone through… I cannot and don’t know how to take this thing.

“I don’t want no sorry. My son is an innocent child. I don’t want to hear nothing. Them fellas and them wicked!”

He said the nearest police station is in Gran Couva, more than half an hour away, while bandits only need “seven or eight minutes to distress people.”

He said criminals have many possible escape routes and are “living, breathing and sucking people dry” in Tabaquite.

“It have too much innocent people in Tabaquite...and people using this escape route as their goldmine to drill, intimidate, interrogate, rob, loot and kill people because of that police station we don’t have.”

Speaking with reporters at the Port of Spain CID building after the media briefing was interrupted by a fire alarm triggered by a faulty electrical breaker, Benjamin said he did not know why the station was closed.

He speculated the decision was made because of manpower issues.

“I can tell you that some of the situations clearly show that because of the number of offences and so on, it was minimal and because of the strength, that could be one of the reasons.”

He said regardless of the reason, the station needs to be reopened.

“Right now we recognise that at this point in time, given the optics in violent crime there, we need to ensure that we have a greater presence. Therefore, as the CoP,  I have taken upon myself to open it.”

Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes said residents have been pleading with police since its closure in 2020 to have it reopened.

She said it was unfortunate it took such a tragic event for that decision to be made.

“I think it is really important that when the TTPS evaluates its strategies that it takes a good look at the communities it has to serve."

She said DCP Curt Simon, who was then head of the police division, met with residents in 2020 and heard their concerns.

“The distance from Gran Couva to Tabaquite has been raised since 2020. The condition of the road, everybody knew it will take police significantly more time to respond.”

She said he told residents the decision will be revisited if it was not working.

“The plan at the time was to have less police officers in stations and more patrolling the communities. It was explained to us they were hoping for increased patrols but I guess that didn’t pan out as they anticipated.

“So we are happy with the decision but sad it took this tragedy to get us here.”