KEVON FELMINE

So­cial ac­tivist and at­tor­ney Ja­son Jones says he has no faith in the po­lice find­ing the killers of LGBTQIA+ ad­vo­cate Ken­nty Mitchell. He cit­ed a decade-long pat­tern of in­ad­e­quate in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the mur­ders of mem­bers and ad­vo­cates of the com­mu­ni­ty in T&T.

Jones, who suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Sec­tions 13 and 16 of the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act which crim­i­nalised bug­gery and se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy even be­tween con­sent­ing adults in 2018 (which was lat­er ap­pealed), ex­pressed his shock and sor­row over Mitchell’s mur­der via Face­book.

De­scrib­ing the news as deeply dis­tress­ing, Jones claimed that Mitchell’s death was an­oth­er in a se­ries of un­ex­plained killings tar­get­ing se­nior mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty.

Re­flect­ing on Mitchell’s piv­otal le­gal bat­tle against po­lice mis­con­duct, Jones re­called that Mitchell had won sig­nif­i­cant dam­ages for the vi­o­la­tion of his hu­man rights af­ter be­ing de­grad­ed in po­lice cus­tody for his sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion.

“And af­ter there be­ing no prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the dozens of mur­ders of gay men in T&T over the last decade, I hold no hope of find­ing Ken­nty’s killer,” Jones wrote.

Mitchell, 47, a maxi-taxi dri­ver, was gunned down out­side his Ste Madeleine home on Fri­day night while host­ing a par­ty. In­ves­ti­ga­tors have yet to de­ter­mine a mo­tive, and no ar­rests have been made.

Pride TT, a promi­nent LGBTQIA+ ad­vo­ca­cy group, has ex­pressed heart­break over Mitchell’s mur­der, de­scrib­ing him as a brave and re­spect­ed fig­ure in the com­mu­ni­ty. In a state­ment, the or­gan­i­sa­tion urged the TTPS to ful­ly in­ves­ti­gate the crime and pro­vide clo­sure for Mitchell’s fam­i­ly and the LGBTQIA+ com­mu­ni­ty.

“We hope that Ken­nty’s trag­ic death does not be­come an­oth­er for­got­ten sta­tis­tic in a long list of un­re­solved acts of vi­o­lence against mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty. Our deep­est con­do­lences go out to his friends, fam­i­ly, and the en­tire LGBTQIA+ com­mu­ni­ty, who are once again griev­ing the sense­less loss of one of our own,” Pride TT said.

Pride TT said Mitchalle’s life would be re­mem­bered not for the vi­o­lent cir­cum­stances of his death but for his lega­cy of courage, strength, and au­then­tic­i­ty.

“Ken­nty’s re­fusal to re­main qui­et in the face of dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­jus­tice serves as a bold re­minder to all LGBTQIA+ peo­ple: nev­er al­low op­pres­sion to sti­fle your ex­is­tence, your voice, or your dreams.”