Police close robbery, shooting case: Mayaro man turns to DPP for justice

Police take an oath to protect and serve the people but some officers of the Mayaro Police Station strayed far from their moorings when they refused to investigate a near fatal shooting and robbery of a fisherman in their district and then allegedly covered up their tracks when the victim tried to re-open the case.

The pain and frustration of Anthony Laing is etched in his voice as he related how his quest for justice ended in a lifetime of anguish as every door he knocked on for help, including the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Commissioner of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith and the Attorney General, was shut in his face.

In May, the PCA concluded that it could not locate Laing's file in the police records and closed its enquiry but recommended to the CoP that efforts be made to find it "to bring closure to same."

He sent a WhatsApp message to Griffith on October 19, 2019 seeking help but did not get a reply and a letter to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi on October 16, 2016 was not acknowledged.

Laing now intends to petition the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, to use his office to once again re-open the case in a wider probe to find out why so many officers conspired to deny him justice.

Laing spent most of his working life working as a driller on oil rigs in the Middle East, India and other countries.

He invested his money in a mini-mart, internet cafe and three fishing boats which he leased out. He also had a business partner who operated the other businesses while he was overseas and lost everything and now survives on the generosity of his sister.

Laing, 55, a father of six, recounted the events of March 23, 2015, with vivid detail during an interview with Sunday Newsday, when a gunman pounced on him at the Guayaguayare Fishing Port.

He said around 10 pm as he was getting ready to take boxes of fish to be sold in Port of Spain a man he had seen before in the village came up from behind, unmasked, and armed with a gun.

Laing said as he turned around the man stepped back and pointed a gun in his face and ordered him to "pass the money." He said he was able to recognise the man as they were standing under a street light.

As he reached into his left trousers pocket to take out money, he was shot.

"I was real close to the gun because gunpowder burn me in the face. The bullet enter the inner part of my right leg, about an inch below my hip and it ruptured the gland in my leg and burst every vein in my leg."

Laing said as he slumped to the ground he thought to himself "it's all over." The gunman, he said, stepped on his neck with one foot and snatched off a gold bracelet from his left hand and told him he was sent by a woman (name called) to kill him but wanted him to suffer first.

The victim said as the crowd of people on the fishing port rushed to the scene, one of his female friends begged the gunman to leave him alone as she thought Laing was already dead, and the gunman fired a shot in the air causing the crowd to scamper.

Laing said shortly before the incident, a police patrol had passed by the fishing port and headed to Guayaguayare village about five minutes away.

After he was taken to the Mayaro Health Centre by a friend, the officers from patrol arrived and asked if he had seen the shooter. Laing said he was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital in an ambulance without a police escort and days later a nurse asked how he did not have any police report in his file.

The nurse, he said, contacted the San Fernando CID and five days after the shooting two officers from the Mayaro station arrived to take a report from him.

Laing said after he was discharged 19 days later, he went to the station to get an update on his report. He met one of the officers who visited him in hospital and he was told the case was closed. He said the officer chased him from the station and accused of being a drug trafficker.

He asked how the police could have closed the case in 14 days while he was still in hospital "fighting for his life." But that was not his only disappointment, as he was taken to court by his business partner and the magistrate awarded her his businesses in a hearing which lasted less than 30 minutes.

After his shooting case was closed, Laing said he met with three senior officers of the Eastern Division and the matter was referred to a sergeant to re-open the case.

Laing said he was startled by the voice of his shooter during a family outing in Point Fortin, sometime later, and saw the man who shot him talking to a relative.

Heeding the advice of a relative, who is a police officer, Laing said he contacted the sergeant and told him he had seen the suspect who was later detained. Laing said he went to the Sangre Grande Police Station to attend an identification parade but after waiting for hours, he was told the suspect was accidentally set free.

"This thing break me financially, physically and mentally. This thing just drop me on the ground. To watch a gun light up in your face is not a nice thing. I lost everything. It had a big impact on me. Right now is one of my sister's and God have me alive. Life real hard and difficult for me."

He said he lived an honest life and wanted justice.

"People in authority in this country have this nation as it is because they are not being held accountable for their actions. That is what is destroying this nation," he said.