Jacob to attorney: Police always preserve evidence

ACTING Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob on Monday said the police would do its job and preserve all evidence gathered in the triple police-involved killing on July 2.

Responding to Newsday, Jacob answered questions about a letter sent to him by an attorney representing one of the three people who survived the police shooting.

“I indicated the letter is for us to preserve the evidence. We are about the rule of law and it is normal procedure to preserve for the court and in some instances there are matters that will have civil litigation so, therefore, there is always a need for us to retain all evidential materials.”

Last Friday, attorney Om Lalla, who is representing a 15-year-old shot during the alleged shoot-out between police and six people in car, wrote to Jacob requesting that all evidence be preserved. In a four-page letter to Jacob, which was copied to director of the Police Complaints Authority David West, Lalla requested all CCTV footage from the police, national security cameras and surrounding businesses be preserved.

He further asked the same be done for body camera footage; ballistic reports, which include the amount of ammunition used and the officers who fired their weapons; the autopsy report from the Forensic Science Centre; evidence that the police vehicle was shot at; the station diary report, and the medical report of the victims.

Lalla’s client is one of three survivors of a police-involved shooting that took place along Independence Square, Port of Spain. Isaiah Roberts, 17, along with Fabien Richards, 21, and Leonardo Williams, 17, were killed after police officers said they were shot at after the car the three were in crashed into Republic Bank, Independence Square.

Police said in a media release that a Smith and Wesson pistol was found in the car and seized.

Williams will be buried on Tuesday while Richards and Roberts were buried on Monday and last Friday respectively.

Lalla’s client said they were chased from Diego Martin to Port of Spain by police and when they reached Port of Spain, the driver turned south along Chacon Street and was slammed into by another police vehicle heading west, causing the car to crash into Republic Bank.

“Upon crashing, the occupants of the vehicle who remained in the vehicle alive and unharmed, which included my client, heard the sounds of further gunshots and were hit by bullets. Three of the occupants of the vehicle died as a result.”

Lalla said his client’s version of the event “represents a wholly unwarranted and blatant example of excessive force by the police.”

Three police officers were re-assigned to clerical duties as the matter is being investigated.