Geisha Kow­lessar

Car­ni­val 2015 has been de­scribed as one of the safest by act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams who said there were 40 se­ri­ous crimes be­tween Car­ni­val Sun­day and Car­ni­val Tues­day.Sev­en firearms were seized and 12 peo­ple were ar­rest­ed for dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol. Williams was speak­ing dur­ing a press brief­ing held at Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

He said sta­tis­tics of se­ri­ous crimes from the past three Car­ni­vals be­tween 2012 and 2014–122, 109 and 46–showed a grad­ual de­cline.The con­tin­u­ous drop, Williams said, was at­trib­uted to the high vis­i­bil­i­ty of po­lice of­fi­cers on the na­tion's roads.

"Com­pared to pre­vi­ous years there have been a low­er num­ber of se­ri­ous crimes than any oth­er years so in that con­text we can speak about it be­ing a safer Car­ni­val. A lot of peo­ple tru­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed the vis­i­ble pres­ence of the po­lice of­fi­cers," Williams said.Al­so speak­ing was Car­ni­val Gold Com­man­der, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) in charge of Op­er­a­tions, Harold Phillip, who said op­er­a­tional plans were gen­er­al­ly well ex­e­cut­ed as they in­clud­ed all arms of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

"Car­ni­val 2015 was a suc­cess­ful event and it was a safe event," Phillip added.On the ef­fec­tive­ness of peo­ple vol­un­tar­i­ly us­ing the sober zones to test their al­co­hol lev­el, he said, the fact that there were no road fa­tal­i­ties proved the ini­tia­tive was a suc­cess. Po­lice re­port­ed a Moru­ga pen­sion­er was hit by a car while cross­ing the road on Car­ni­val Tues­day and died in hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day.

Williams, who agreed, said more and more peo­ple were con­scious of the con­se­quences of drink­ing and dri­ving.Williams did pro­vide the num­ber of po­lice of­fi­cers who called in sick or who stayed away from work dur­ing Car­ni­val.In­stead, he at­trib­uted the high vis­i­bil­i­ty of of­fi­cers to prop­er plan­ning."Ex­cel­lent ex­e­cu­tion would al­low (us) to get the re­sult we want. So we planned up more than the re­quired num­ber of of­fi­cers for Car­ni­val so any ab­sen­teeism would not have im­pact­ed the re­quire­ment," Williams added.

break­down of crimes

Car­ni­val Sun­day

West­ern Di­vi­sion

Rob­bery with ag­gra­va­tion–1

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

Lar­ce­ny–1

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

Lar­ce­ny– 1

Car­ni­val Mon­day­Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

As­sault and bat­tery–1

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

House break­ing and lar­ce­ny–1

Lar­ce­ny–4

Rob­bery with vi­o­lence–1

Mur­der –1

Wound­ing –1

Rob­bery with vi­o­lence–1

East­ern Di­vi­sion

Ma­li­cious wound­ing–1

Co­caine pos­ses­sion–1

Fight­ing–2

South­ern Di­vi­sion

Co­caine pos­ses­sion–2

Weapon pos­ses­sion–1

Lar­ce­ny mo­tor­car–1

Fight­ing–2

Mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion–1

Ma­li­cious dam­age–1

North­ern Di­vi­sion

Fight­ing–3

Ma­li­cious wound­ing–1

Weapon pos­ses­sion–1

In­de­cent as­sault–1

Re­sist­ing ar­rest–1

Wound­ing with in­tent–1

Ob­struct­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer–1

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

Lar­ce­ny per­son–1

Lar­ce­ny–2

Rob­bery–1

Rob­bery with vi­o­lence–1

Mur­der–1

North East­ern Di­vi­sion

Mur­der–1

Car­ni­val Tues­day­To­ba­go Di­vi­sion

Shoot­ing with in­tent–1

West­ern Di­vi­sion

Ma­li­cious Dam­age–1

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

Shoot­ing with in­tent–1

Re­sist­ing ar­rest–1

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

House break­ing and lar­ce­ny–1

Lar­ce­ny per­son–1

As­sault–2

Shoot­ing with in­tent–1

Mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion–1

North­ern Di­vi­sion

Re­port of body found–1

Forgery–1

As­sault­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer–1

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

Mur­der–1

Norther East­ern Di­vi­sion

Wound­ing with in­tent–1

moru­ga road fa­tal­i­ty

A Moru­ga pen­sion­er died ear­ly yes­ter­day in hos­pi­tal from in­juries she sus­tained af­ter be­ing hit by a car while cross­ing the road.

Around 4.10 pm on Car­ni­val Tues­day, Ko­riesha Min­nie Khan, 70, was struck by a car dri­ven by 34-year-old Nigel Boodoo, while she was cross­ing the La Lune Road in Moru­ga. Khan, who suf­fered se­vere head and neck in­juries, was tak­en to the Princes Town Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty and then trans­ferred to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. She died around 5 am yes­ter­day at the hos­pi­tal.

Boodoo, of St Mary's Vil­lage, Moru­ga, was ques­tioned by po­lice and lat­er re­leased. Ac­ing Cpl Jairaj of the Moru­ga is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

–Shar­lene Ram­per­sad