Fran­cis Joseph

?Af­ter Co­di Alves woke up in the mor­tu­ary of the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, he was se­dat­ed by a nurse. That was the last thing he re­mem­bered while ly­ing on a stretch­er. He said: "The next thing, I wake up, was the next morn­ing on a ward, hand­cuff to a bed. There was a next po­lice­man guard­ing me. I take out meh phone which was in a bag and hide it un­der meh arm. All meh bloody clothes was wrapped up in a bag at the side of the bed. "The po­lice­man come and say whey de phone that was here. I say it eh have no phone here. I end up send­ing a mes­sage for meh moth­er to send a lawyer in the hos­pi­tal, Ward 43. The po­lice­man want­ed to know how this lawyer reach there, how he know to come here. They keep me there for one day and then took me to the Mor­vant sta­tion. "At the sta­tion, the po­lice ask­ing me where I go­ing to live when I come out ah here. A next po­lice­man say­ing, 'Co­di, you boast­ing boy, what goes around comes around.' He mean that I was boast­ing in the cell that I play dead.

"I re­main there un­til Mon­day when I went to court. They test me for gun pow­der, I don't know what they find, I don't know if they find any on the clothes, is ma­chine gun they were fir­ing. Is plen­ty shots fire on the car that night. They give me back the clothes. They test meh hand and they gone with it." On the night of the in­ci­dent, po­lice said they were re­spond­ing to a re­port of mur­der in Ari­ma, and that the car in which Alves and his friends were trav­el­ling was con­sid­ered the get­away car in the killing. But Alves said, as the lone sur­vivor, he was nev­er ques­tioned about any mur­der. He said: "In the sta­tion, they ask me about no mur­der. A po­lice­man come with two guns and say you know we have to give you this. I say for what, I did not have no gun in no car. He say you know how it does go, your three brethrens dead, you doh ex­pect to walk out just so.

"They charge me eight charges, pos­ses­sion of guns, am­mu­ni­tion, shoot­ing at the po­lice. I got bail the first day, but I come out last week. I stay in there a whole month, I didn't have the mon­ey at the time. Then meh lawyer (Wayne Sturge) tell me it bet­ter you stay in jail, stay there for a while, my lawyer fright­en for me. "I cah walk the road com­fort­able, they could gun me down, I come like ah is the wit­ness. If they see me any­where, they go look to kill me. Those three fel­las, I know them good. The po­lice had 'Lall' down as a pest, is re­al­ly he they were be­hind." Alves said he had one con­vic­tion for pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na, and one case pend­ing in the Port-of-Spain High Court for pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion sev­en years ago. He said al­though peo­ple might say he was ly­ing, there were wit­ness­es to the shoot­ings, who were afraid to come for­ward at this time. "Is a po­lice thing...they know the po­lice does op­er­ate."

Why I spoke out

What made Alves talk out?

He re­spond­ed: "I didn't have to be here. I coul­da dead, I have to talk meh mind. On­ly God alone know how I still alive. Is a hun­dred-plus shots bust from the junc­tion to Ju­man's. I aint even get a graze, my brethrens get rid­dled down." Alves said the car in which they were trav­el­ling be­longed to a lawyer, but the po­lice said it was hot. Akee was work­ing taxi, a PH, un­til he pay off for it. If they say we com­mit a mur­der in Ari­ma, why didn't they in­ter­cept the car in Mal­oney, why wait un­til we reach a lone­ly spot to kill them fel­las?" Alves said what sur­prised him lat­er was that none of the po­lice in­volved in the shoot­ings, charged him with the var­i­ous of­fences.

He said: "They put a man who wasn't there to charge me. They feel ah doh know, ah know every­thing, ah see every­thing. Is Lall they want­ed to kill. If there is an in­quest, I doh mine talk­ing and say that."