An­na-Lisa Paul

A rel­a­tive of act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob, who is cur­rent­ly on va­ca­tion, was yes­ter­day ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the mur­der of re­tired po­lice con­sta­ble Zaid Mo­hammed.

The rel­a­tive, of St Croix, Princes Town, along with an­oth­er sus­pect, were held by South­ern Di­vi­sion Po­lice in a car at Su­chit Trace, Pe­nal, min­utes af­ter the killing.

Con­firm­ing that the de­tained man was a “dis­tant” rel­a­tive of his when he was con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Ja­cob said no spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tions or con­di­tions would be ex­tend­ed to his rel­a­tive.

Ja­cob said re­gard­less of the fa­mil­ial re­la­tion­ship, “once you do the crime, you will do the time.”

Mo­hammed, 46, was gunned down out­side his home at Kat­wa­roo Trace, Pe­nal, around 9 am. The busi­ness­man re­tired from the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice three years ago.

When the two sus­pects were held in the get­away ve­hi­cle, which bore false li­cense plates that had been placed atop the orig­i­nal plates, of­fi­cers car­ried out a search and found a pis­tol in the car.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Ja­cob’s rel­a­tive, aged 33, is a fa­ther of three who has been re­sid­ing all over T&T.

Yes­ter­day, Ja­cob re­vealed, “He is known to be in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty…mean­ing to say, he has been charged by the po­lice on more than one oc­ca­sion.”

Say­ing the rel­a­tive had been ques­tioned by the Homi­cide Bu­reau in con­nec­tion with oth­er mat­ters be­fore, Ja­cob shared, “My sis­ter, who is a pas­tor, has been try­ing to see what sort of work she can do in terms of try­ing to get him to come out of this life of crime.”

The sus­pect’s fa­ther, the CoP’s el­der broth­er, is de­ceased.

Asked if he had spo­ken with the rel­a­tive since the ar­rest, Ja­cob said, “No, I have had no con­ver­sa­tion with him. That is why I used the word dis­tant. I tend not to have any con­ver­sa­tions with him.”

Ja­cob said this was not al­ways the case, as he had tried in the past to get the rel­a­tive to change his life. When this proved fu­tile, Ja­cob said, he opt­ed not to pur­sue it.

“I don’t have any­thing to do with him now.”

How­ev­er, he re­it­er­at­ed, “No spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tions will be ex­tend­ed to him. I al­ways tell them let the chips fall where they may and they are all aware of that.

“They could be re­lat­ed to me, they could be linked to me…if you do the crime, you have to do the time.”

Ja­cob said his en­tire fam­i­ly knew this had been his mantra from the time he joined the TTPS, and he re­mained stead­fast on this po­si­tion.

The CoP said this was not the first time a po­lice of­fi­cer’s rel­a­tive had been held for be­ing in­volved in crime, as they too are part of the so­ci­ety and are af­fect­ed by all the re­sul­tant ills.

“We are not im­mune, we are part of the so­ci­ety. The same way we have per­sons who will end up be­ing vic­tims of crime who are re­lat­ed to us, the same way we will have per­sons who are of­fend­ers,” Ja­cob said.