ambika.jagassarsingh@guardian.co.tt
The US Department of State’s 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released earlier this year stated that T&T recorded “significant human rights issues” including “credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by police” last year.
The 20-page document stated that T&T’s government did go through the legal proceedings to punish those involved, however, “impunity persisted due to open-ended investigations and the generally slow pace of criminal judicial proceedings.”
The report’s first section delved into “motivated killings,” once again, stating that “there were credible reports that police committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.”
Identifying a few of the 2022 police-involved shootings, the report highlighted the case of PC Clarence Gilkes who was fatally shot last April during a police operation in which civilian Jehlano Romney was the prime suspect. However, ballistics confirmed that Gilkes was shot and killed from behind by a police weapon.
A PCA investigation concluded that police officers had made a false statement and characterised the incident as an abuse of police authority.
Romney was cleared and the DPP then gave investigators permission to charge PC Kristian Genty for Gilkes’s murder. Genty and WPC Crystal Williams-Bowman were also charged with shooting at Romney with intent to cause harm.
Last November, Romney was shot and killed by an unidentified gunman.
The report also mentioned Williams, Richards and Roberts being killed by the police following a July 2, 2022 chase in Port-of-Spain and the alleged recovery of an illegal firearm from the vehicle in which they were occupants.
“Autopsies revealed that the men were shot from behind,” the report stated, adding that “the Police Standards Bureau of the TTPS also investigated “whether security force killings are justified.”
It also spoke about an off-duty police officer who shot and killed a man in San Fernando as the two men argued and scuffled over a parking spot last October.
