Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Af­ter a brazen rob­bery at gun­point on San Fer­nan­do Hill on Mon­day, vis­i­tors are call­ing for in­creased se­cu­ri­ty at the pop­u­lar land­mark.

Sev­er­al vis­i­tors who spoke with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day said they were un­aware of the in­ci­dent and ex­pressed shock and con­cern that ban­dits had tar­get­ed the area, shat­ter­ing their sense of safe­ty while on the hill.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, a 21-year-old Gas­par­il­lo man was un­der a shed near the wash­room fa­cil­i­ties on the hill around 4 pm, when he was ap­proached by two men.

One of them point­ed a gun at him. Afraid for his life, he obeyed their in­struc­tions and hand­ed over his $5,000 iPhone, a $3,000 table­top gold ring, and $190. The sus­pects then ran off. Po­lice can­vassed the hill and along Cir­cu­lar Road but found no CCTV cam­eras to as­sist in their in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

The hill is equipped with ta­bles, sheds, a main of­fice, and a play­ground. It is a pop­u­lar spot for fam­i­ly pic­nics, wed­dings, fetes, oth­er events, and for peo­ple who use the area to ex­er­cise. When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed, there were a few peo­ple, in­clud­ing cou­ples, re­lax­ing, en­joy­ing the scenic view, and hav­ing meals.

When told about the rob­bery, one cou­ple ex­pressed shock, and their de­meanour im­me­di­ate­ly re­flect­ed dis­com­fort.

“What?” ex­claimed the woman, who said dur­ing her pre­vi­ous vis­its to the hill she nev­er felt un­safe.

She said, “This is the first I am hear­ing about this in­ci­dent, and it is re­al­ly shock­ing. They should put stricter se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures in place. More se­cu­ri­ty pa­trols for the safe­ty of per­sons vis­it­ing.”

An­oth­er vis­i­tor, Ramesh Ram­dath, re­called that he had been the vic­tim of a rob­bery at gun­point years ago. He said the young man who was robbed on Mon­day would be trau­ma­tised.

He, too, called for in­creased se­cu­ri­ty. “This is a his­tor­i­cal place in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and I think that we should have more se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures in San Fer­nan­do, not just at the bot­tom of the hill but al­so on the top.”

Ram­nath said the in­ci­dent would al­so tar­nish the hill’s rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing peace­ful, icon­ic, and safe.

Rather than sta­tion­ary se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers, he called for more ve­hic­u­lar and foot pa­trols.

Mean­while, San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris con­demned the in­ci­dent and urged vis­i­tors to be vig­i­lant. He said that pre­vi­ous­ly, of­fi­cers of the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion would have pa­trolled the hill.

“I want pa­trons of San Fer­nan­do Hill to be vig­i­lant and be aware of their sur­round­ings. Thank­ful­ly, this sit­u­a­tion didn’t turn in­to a tragedy, and I will be speak­ing to the po­lice to have more pa­trols on the hill, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the hours it is most used.”

The may­or ex­plained that a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) was signed be­tween the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion (SFCC) and the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture to hand over the op­er­a­tions of the hill to the SFCC. How­ev­er, he said this has not ful­ly ma­te­ri­alised.

With a change in gov­ern­ment, he is hope­ful that what was agreed to in the MOU will be ho­n­oured and the SFCC will ful­ly gain the hill as one of its as­sets.

Yes­ter­day, a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer post­ed at the bot­tom of the hill was seen reg­is­ter­ing the names of dri­vers and in­form­ing them of the 5.30 pm clos­ing time. A vis­i­tor ex­plained that this was a new mea­sure, as she had nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced that in the past.

The hill can al­so be ac­cessed through trails. At­tempts to con­tact Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram were un­suc­cess­ful.

Sev­er­al years ago, is­sues of se­cu­ri­ty were al­so raised by vis­i­tors and work­ers fol­low­ing re­ports of rob­beries and thefts.

PC Ram­sa­roop of the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion is in­ves­ti­gat­ing Mon­day’s rob­bery.