Camille Clarke

Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions were marred by vi­o­lence, as sev­er­al peo­ple–in­clud­ing po­lice–were robbed, shot and stabbed dur­ing sep­a­rate in­ci­dents across north­ern Trinidad. Po­lice on pa­trol were at­tacked on Sun­day night by a large crowd of peo­ple lim­ing along West­ern Main Road in St James. Two po­lice of­fi­cers were wound­ed dur­ing the in­ci­dent, law­men said.

A re­port said the of­fi­cers were near to a pop­u­lar bar when sev­er­al peo­ple jumped on­to the ve­hi­cle and at­tempt­ed to take away their firearms.

Po­lice said the crowd start­ed throw­ing stones and bot­tles at the ve­hi­cle. The of­fi­cers alight­ed from the ve­hi­cle and a large crowd con­verged on them. A woman po­lice was struck in her face. The of­fi­cers fired sev­er­al shots in the air to dis­perse the crowd, de­tec­tives said. A po­lice­man was al­so wound­ed on his leg. The fe­male of­fi­cer was tak­en to hos­pi­tal, where she re­ceived stitch­es, and was sub­se­quent­ly sent on sick leave. Se­nior of­fi­cers said the crowd was larg­er than nor­mal and they had been lim­ing and drink­ing. They said the al­ter­ca­tion was not pro­voked, how­ev­er, and no one was ar­rest­ed, de­tec­tives said.

Five peo­ple were re­port­ed stabbed dur­ing J'Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents be­tween Car­los Street and Cipri­ani Boule­vard in Wood­brook. A home­less man was stabbed ear­ly on Mon­day morn­ing along the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, Port-of-Spain. Har­resh Ram­narace, orig­i­nal­ly of East Dry Riv­er, is ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion at Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. A Mor­vant woman is be­ing ques­tioned by the po­lice. Dawn "Don" Charles was shot dur­ing gang war­fare on An­dre Street in San­gre Grande. A re­port said Charles was in front of an out­let around 9 am, when an ar­gu­ment start­ed among sev­er­al men. One man took out a cut­lass and flung it, and an­oth­er one took out a firearm and start­ed to shoot af­ter him. Charles was shot in the melee.

She was treat­ed and dis­charged from San­gre Grande Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal. The mu­sic was stopped by en­ter­tain­ers af­ter the in­ci­dent oc­curred. Se­nior of­fi­cers said an ar­rest was im­mi­nent. Ri­ot Squad Po­lice and of­fi­cers of the T&T Reg­i­ment were al­so on the scene. A Mor­vant man man­aged to es­cape death when he was caught un­der the wheels of a trac­tor trail­er near to the Zoo in Port-of-Spain. James Julien was pulled out by on­look­ers and tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, where he was treat­ed, and is ward­ed in sat­is­fac­to­ry con­di­tion.

Mean­while, a 38-year-old Diego Mar­tin man was ar­rest­ed and charged for as­sault­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer and ob­scene lan­guage. A re­port said the man was at a par­ty in Mo­ka, Mar­aval. Po­lice said the man be­gan "mis­be­hav­ing" and when they ap­proached him, he be­gan to "curse and as­sault" PC Springer. He was charged by PC Chase of Mar­aval Po­lice. A teenage girl was phys­i­cal­ly as­sault­ed by sev­er­al women on St Vin­cent Street, caus­ing a fight in­volv­ing 20 men and women. The teen and her friends man­aged to es­cape along the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade.

Man shot dead in Care­nage

In an un­re­lat­ed in­ci­dent, a 19-year-old dis­abled man was shot dead on Sun­day night at his Up­per Sea View Hill home, Care­nage. Po­lice said Kevon Samuel, a para­plegic, was at home around 7.15 pm, when res­i­dents heard loud ex­plo­sions. Neigh­bours im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed po­lice. Samuel was found ly­ing on the porch with gun­shot wounds to his back and hands. He died on the spot. De­tec­tives said Samuel was dis­abled af­ter a shoot­ing in 2004. He was shot in his hip which left him paral­ysed. They said they had no mo­tive for his death, but sus­pect it was a hit called. Homi­cide of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.