GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

A re­newed call for crim­i­nals to put down the guns, this time from the pres­i­dent of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent (Ag) Gideon Dick­son, fol­low­ing the fa­tal shoot­ing of Po­lice Con­sta­ble Kr­ish­na Ba­na­har.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher has com­ment­ed on the tragedy, say­ing it is gross­ly dis­con­cert­ing when law en­force­ment of­fi­cers be­come vic­tims of crime.

And ASP Dick­son al­so is ex­treme­ly con­cerned that crim­i­nals are be­com­ing more brazen.

“We have al­ready wit­nessed that there is a pro­lif­er­a­tion of high-pow­ered weapons through­out the length and breadth of T&T,” he not­ed.

“Our porous bor­der and our weak se­cu­ri­ty mech­a­nisms are not aid­ing in ad­dress the is­sue as such,” the po­lice union boss as­serts. “The con­fronta­tion of po­lice of­fi­cers by these per­pe­tra­tors with firearms in their pos­ses­sion is be­com­ing more and more preva­lent. We would still call on per­sons to put down their arms.”

The 35-year-old sus­pect in Wednes­day’s shoot­ing re­mains in po­lice cus­tody.