GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

The East Port of Spain De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EPOS) has ho­n­oured two Sea Lots res­i­dents for their brav­ery in res­cu­ing a car ac­ci­dent vic­tim trapped in a burn­ing ve­hi­cle.

EPOS recog­nised De­shawn Hamil­ton, 28, and Ter­rance David, 43, af­ter read­ing about their hero­ic ac­tions in the Guardian News­pa­per.

On Sep­tem­ber 5, 2024, the men act­ed swift­ly af­ter wit­ness­ing the ac­ci­dent near Pro­duc­tion Av­enue on the north­bound lane of the Beetham High­way. De­spite the risk of ex­plo­sion, they pulled the vic­tim, a po­lice of­fi­cer, from the wreck­age.

EPOS Chair­man Hillan More­an praised the men’s courage and felt they de­served recog­ni­tion. On Sep­tem­ber 9, 2024, EPOS pre­sent­ed to­kens of ap­pre­ci­a­tion to the men at their Laven­tille of­fice. EPOS Deputy Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Mrs. Nis­sa Hosten-James high­light­ed the men’s brav­ery and the com­pa­ny’s com­mit­ment to recog­nis­ing pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions from East Port of Spain.

Mrs. Hosten-James said: “We are im­mense­ly proud of the courage shown by De­shawn Hamil­ton and Ter­rance David. Their ac­tions re­flect the best of our com­mu­ni­ty spir­it—self­less­ness, brav­ery, and hu­man­i­ty. At EPOS, we be­lieve in cel­e­brat­ing those who con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly from com­mu­ni­ties that are of­ten mis­rep­re­sent­ed. Their hero­ism re­minds us of the re­silience and strength of East Port of Spain.”

Ter­rance David ex­pressed a de­sire for the pub­lic to stop stereo­typ­ing his com­mu­ni­ty.

“(Peo­ple think) one wrong in Sea Lots is every­body do wrong,” he said.

He added that the vic­tim’s sta­tus as a po­lice of­fi­cer did not af­fect his ac­tions.

“We were not study­ing that is po­lice. What we were study­ing is that is a life. It could have been you or me or any­body."

David’s mes­sage was, “Don’t take a life.  Save a life.”

And De­shawn Hamil­ton wants to see youth in his com­mu­ni­ty guid­ed to­wards pos­i­tive paths:

“There’s a lot of youth, re­al skilled peo­ple in Sea Lots.  They just not get­ting the op­por­tu­ni­ties.”

Dur­ing the meet­ing, the men shared their hopes for their com­mu­ni­ty and pro­posed var­i­ous pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives aimed at sup­port­ing lo­cal youth.