Police arrest suspect in Belmont murder

Police held a suspect within hours after a 33-year-old man was killed on Walcott Lane in Belmont.

Around 11.40 am on February 17, Marvin Phillip, of Vincent Brown Street, Gonzales, went to Walcott Lane near Belle Eau Road to collect a drill for work.

He was confronted by three armed men and moments later residents reported hearing several gunshots.

They saw Phillip lying in the road with gunshot wounds.

A bystander took him to the Port of Spain General Hospital, but he was pronounced dead at around 12.45 pm.

Port of Spain Division head Snr Supt Thom and ASP Soodeen led the response along with Sgt Guerra and acting Sgt Sookhoo from the Port of Spain Task Force, Sgt Seecheeran from the Homicide Bureau and Sgt Maslier from the CID.

Police found two 7.62 spent shells.

Speaking with journalists outside CID Building on Sackville Street, DCP Curt Simon said police arrested a suspect and found a gun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Asked about the effect of the state of emergency (SoE) on crime, Simon said he has seen a change, with murders down 20 per cent and a 47 per cent reduction in violent crime.

He believes, though, more can be achieved.

“We are not satisfied with that reduction. We think that it should be lower. Right now we are restrategising in terms of how we are going to really make additional use of the SoE, even in the midst of this Carnival season.

“We assure the public that we are here, we are working, and our efforts are geared really towards reducing the crimes, reducing the murders and making the arrests.”

Changes to detention orders

Simon pointed to the use of detention orders as an example of the effect of the SoE on crime. He said police have been able to arrest 23 people via detention orders in accordance with the SoE regulations.

He explained the regulations allow for a detention order to be issued for someone even if they are not yet in police custody.

“When there are certain circumstances that may exist that may prevail in an investigation, the police make the application for preventive this detention order. So long as the minister is satisfied with the request, that order will be granted.”

He explained issuing detention orders is an exhaustive process and priority offenders whom the police believe “would cause some sort of mayhem to the public and even to the national security as a whole” are the only people targeted.

“We have a group of legal officers, who view all of the intelligence reports that we have gathered and submit to them. That committee then takes those files to the committee appointed by the Ministry of National Security, who then would take it to the necessary judge and so on.

“The minister would then sign the order, and it comes right back down to us and we execute.”

He admitted there have been some concerns that people may flee if they discover an order has been granted before they are in custody.

Simon said police have requested some adjustments to the process to address this concern.

“We believe that we should keep it more on the intelligence level. So we have made certain requests that it remains that way.”