Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion II will be as­sist­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tors in their probe in­to the death of pris­on­er Em­manuel Joseph.

Joseph, 22, was ar­rest­ed and charged in re­la­tion to the at­tempt­ed mur­der of a prison of­fi­cer at the Barataria home of Deputy Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Sher­win Bruce on Oc­to­ber 11.

The 49-year-old prison of­fi­cer, who is as­signed as a dri­ver and body­guard for Bruce, was shot in his up­per and low­er right arm dur­ing the at­tack. A mi­nor was al­so in­jured.

A me­dia re­lease from the prison ser­vice on Sat­ur­day stat­ed that Joseph com­plained of chest pains last Fri­day and was tak­en to the Ari­ma Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where he was de­clared dead.

How­ev­er, an au­top­sy on Thurs­day af­ter­noon found that Joseph died of shock and haem­or­rhage, poly-trau­ma and blunt force trau­ma.

When Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Joseph’s sis­ter, Crys­tal Charles, yes­ter­day, she did not want to speak much but said his body was “un­recog­nis­able” dur­ing the au­top­sy.

Charles said rel­a­tives had not been giv­en any up­dates by the au­thor­i­ties about her broth­er’s death.

But the head of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Snr Supt Rishi Singh, as­sured there will be trans­paren­cy and the in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be con­duct­ed thor­ough­ly and with pro­fes­sion­al­ism. He said Joseph’s death will be in­ves­ti­gat­ed by North­ern Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers with sup­port from Homi­cide de­tec­tives.

“As an or­gan­i­sa­tion, we al­ways en­deav­our to up­hold the high­est in­ves­tiga­tive stan­dards. We do un­der­stand that this par­tic­u­lar mat­ter will en­gage pub­lic at­ten­tion as it right­ful­ly should and in the cir­cum­stances, the Homi­cide Bu­reau will main­tain over­sight over the di­vi­sion in this in­ves­ti­ga­tion, again to en­sure that the di­vi­sion ad­heres to the high­est in­ves­tiga­tive stan­dards in this mat­ter,” Singh said.

Al­so speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er De­op­er­sad Ra­moutar said he was con­cerned af­ter hear­ing the lat­est de­vel­op­ment in the probe of Joseph’s death. He promised a prop­er probe.

“A foren­sic re­port will be done, which means we have to go more in-depth. No stone will be left un­turned and a prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be done,” said Ra­moutar.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), Ger­ard Gor­don, said yes­ter­day via What­sApp that he was await­ing the out­come of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and hoped it could pro­vide clo­sure to Joseph’s fam­i­ly.

He lament­ed, how­ev­er, that sev­er­al mur­ders of prison of­fi­cers over the years have re­main un­solved.

“We can on­ly hope that the po­lice are able to pro­vide some clo­sure. In the many mur­ders of of­fi­cers over the years, no such clo­sure has come to us, but we re­main hope­ful,” Gor­don said.

Di­rec­tor of the Caribbean Cen­ter for Hu­man Rights (CCHR) Denise Pitch­er said Joseph’s death was cause for con­cern and called for a full in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Re­fer­ring to the death of sus­pect Joel Bel­con in 2021, Pitch­er warned that the fail­ure of the au­thor­i­ties to in­ves­ti­gate and charge those re­spon­si­ble could fur­ther low­er the pub­lic’s per­cep­tion of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

Bel­con and An­drew Mor­ris were sus­pects in the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of Ari­ma court clerk An­drea Bharatt. They both died while in po­lice cus­tody.

“This in­ci­dent re­in­forces the be­lief in the pub­lic of our weak jus­tice sys­tem. The onus is on the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure that a prop­er and thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion is done to re­store the pub­lic’s trust of the jus­tice sys­tem. The pub­lic’s trust in the jus­tice sys­tem is al­ready very frag­ile giv­en the spate of crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Pitch­er said.

Re­fer­ring to so­cial me­dia com­ments from some who seemed to cel­e­brate Joseph’s death, she said while he was ar­rest­ed for a crime, he was en­ti­tled to due process and hu­mane treat­ment.