Cops on murder charge had 'impeccable characters,' says witness at trial

THE six police officers accused of killing three friends in 2011 were all known to have “impeccable characters” and were dedicated to their duties, one of their colleagues testified on Wednesday.

On July 22, 2011, best friends Abigail Johnson, 20, of St Mary’s Village, Moruga, Alana Duncan, 27, of Duncan Village, San Fernando and construction worker Kerron “Fingers” Eccles, 29, also of St Mary’s Village, were gunned down by police.

Six police officers – Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, Antonio Ramadin – are accused of murdering the three.

They are before Justice Carla Brown-Antoine and a 12-member jury in the Port of Spain High Court.

In an opening address on Tuesday, lead prosecutor Gilbert Peterson, SC, suggested the six were targeting a man wanted by police for three alleged murders when the car he was previously in that night was shot at in Barrackpore.

It is the prosecution’s contention that the six are criminally responsible because of the harm caused to the others.

On Wednesday, then-police photographer Cpl Videsh Ramsaran testified at the trial. He said he took photographs of the three at the San Fernando Mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital on July 25, 2011, and of two police vehicles in the basement of the police administration building at the San Fernando police station.

The 11 photographs of the two police vehicles were tendered into evidence. They showed a hole in the windscreen of one of the vehicles as well as similar holes to the side of another.

He was questioned by the officers’ lead attorney Israel Khan, SC. He said he knew them as members of the “specialist” robbery squad in the southern division. Sahadeo was in charge of the squad.

He said he knew each to be of impeccable character and dedicated to the job. He also said as with all police officers, they, too, “put their lives on the line for the country.”

Also testifying was another police photographer, Insp Vorster Yearwood, who took photos of a Toyota Corolla which was at a garage in San Fernando.

The trial continues on Thursday.