RHON­DOR DOWLAT

The mur­der count for this month stands at 59, one away from break­ing the record for the dead­liest Jan­u­ary month ever in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The 59 mur­ders so far in­clude sev­en dou­ble mur­ders and one triple mur­der.

In the North­ern Di­vi­sion, which is lead­ing in the mur­der count, there were four dou­ble mur­ders, bring­ing the toll to 24 mur­ders for the year up to yes­ter­day evening. In the South­ern Di­vi­sion there were four mur­ders, in­clud­ing one dou­ble mur­der and in the North East­ern Di­vi­sion, there were eight mur­ders, in­clud­ing one dou­ble mur­der.

In the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, there were 13 mur­ders, in­clud­ing one dou­ble mur­der and in the West­ern Di­vi­sion there were five mur­ders.

Out of the 59 mur­ders record­ed for the year thus far, 53 were com­mit­ted with firearms and there was one fa­tal stab­bing in the North East­ern Di­vi­sion.

Last week­end, 13 peo­ple were mur­dered be­tween Fri­day and Sun­day.

In re­sponse to the week­end’s killing, act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Christo­pher said they are not daunt­ed by “the un­for­tu­nate and dis­turb­ing spate of vi­o­lence.”

She, how­ev­er, gave the as­sur­ance that the TTPS will con­tin­ue to in­ten­si­fy its crack­down on gangs “to break the hold of the dead­ly gang cul­ture and crim­i­nal­i­ty that leaves a trail of death and de­spair with­in our com­mu­ni­ties.”

“What we may be wit­ness­ing is the storm be­fore the calm, as the TTPS will con­tin­ue to use its re­sources to sup­press these gangs and oth­er crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. We will not stop ap­ply­ing pres­sure on those who are de­ter­mined to dis­rupt and strike fear in the lives of all law-abid­ing cit­i­zens. We will keep up the fight. God’s will­ing, we will suc­ceed,” Christo­pher added.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, as it re­lates to the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion mur­ders, ear­ly in­di­ca­tors sug­gest there are con­nect­ing fea­tures sug­gest­ing the same group of in­di­vid­u­als are re­spon­si­ble for these acts.

Dur­ing a vis­it to Kel­ly Vil­lage in Ca­roni yes­ter­day, where there were sev­er­al mur­ders record­ed in re­cent times, res­i­dents ex­pressed con­cern about the in­crease in gang/drug-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

Res­i­dent Faiz Ali said: “There were shoot­ings, homi­cides, rob­beries and some busi­ness­es have com­plained of ex­tor­tion and when they do not com­ply, they fall vic­tim to crime. Some busi­ness­es are even clos­ing down or con­sid­er­ing to close be­cause of this.”

Ali claimed that the crime es­ca­lat­ed in the area in the lat­er part of 2020, when a man de­scribed as a “crime boss” was mur­dered. He said crime is not lim­it­ed to any one area of the vil­lage.

“The en­tire vil­lage is fear­ful, as we live in con­stant fear that crime could come knock­ing on our doors at any time, whether it be by be­ing in­no­cent by­standers or a wit­ness to a crime,” he said.

“It is al­leged that per­sons from the vil­lage as well, they are bring­ing in per­sons to car­ry out crime.”

Ali sug­gest­ed that a prop­er­ly out­fit­ted po­lice post be es­tab­lished in the area.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Kam­la Pha­goo, said the po­lice needs to be boost­ed with more re­sources, in­clud­ing ve­hi­cles and more of­fi­cers, so there can be a high vis­i­bil­i­ty of po­lice in com­mu­ni­ties.

Pha­goo al­so sug­gest­ed that sol­diers be dis­patched to­geth­er with po­lice of­fi­cers to act as a greater de­ter­rent to crim­i­nals.

Ca­roni East MP Dr Rishad Seecher­an had called for a po­lice post in the Kel­ly Vil­lage area last year.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, he said he re­it­er­at­ed his call dur­ing a com­mu­ni­ty meet­ing with se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers re­cent­ly.

“In that meet­ing, over 200 res­i­dents came out and shared their is­sues and con­cerns with the po­lice and the po­lice lis­tened. We are hope­ful that promis­es and as­sur­ances will fol­low through from that meet­ing,” Seecher­an said.

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, North­ern Di­vi­sion Snr Supt Ker­win Fran­cis said there will al­ways be a need for more re­sources.

“This does­nt ap­ply to on­ly the TTPS but oth­er arms of the state se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus, but we are mak­ing do with what has been avail­able,” Fran­cis said.

Asked what the po­lice were do­ing to re­store pub­lic safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty in the di­vi­sion, Fran­cis replied: “There have been in­creased pa­trols across the North Di­vi­sion North; in­creased DUI ex­er­cis­es; in­creased raids and search­es; in­creased pros­e­cu­tions for se­ri­ous crimes in the court; in­creased firearms and am­mu­ni­tion seizures; in­creased tar­get­ing of gangs and in­creased com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ments by way of walk­a­bouts, sta­tion coun­cil meet­ings, neigh­bour­hood watch­groups and youth clubs.”

Side Box

Jan­u­ary month Mur­der sta­tis­tics 2023 - 2013

2023 - 59

2022 - 52

2021 - 25

2020 - 46

2019 - 41

2018 - 60

2017 - 52

2016 - 49

2015 - 30

2014 - 48

2013 - 38

Side Box

Mur­der Sta­tis­tics for Jan­u­ary 2023 in the 9 Po­lice Di­vi­sions

North­ern - 24

Cen­tral - 13

North East­ern - 8

West­ern - 5

South­ern - 4

East­ern - 3

Port of Spain - 1

South West­ern - 1

To­ba­go - 0