The head of the Police Complaints Authority said an investigator from the authority will be assigned this morning to probe the police killings of three people in Tunapuna on Saturday.
Yesterday, friends of Shaquille “Dust Boss” Mc Gregor, called on the PCA head himself to investigate the matter.
Police said around 5 am Saturday a team of officers went to Mc Gregor’s apartment at Monte Grande, Tunapuna, to execute a warrant. However, officers were shot at and returned fire killing Mc Gregor, as well as 18-year-old Jadel Shinika Ottley, who was pregnant. Another man only identified as “Silence” was also killed.
When Guardian Media visited the area yesterday residents showed two apartments in which the doors were broken. They said the doors were kicked down by the police officers. There were also bullet holes on the walls almost low to the floor, which was explained by one of Mc Gregor’s friends: “They were sleeping on their mattresses which were on the ground. How can a sleeping man or men be shooting at the officers when the bullet holes on the walls so low down?
Mc Gregor’s friend said the 29-year-old was in a room of an apartment alone, while Ottley was in another room with her boyfriend. The third man “Silence” was in the second apartment.
Police sources claimed Mc Gregor was involved in the murder of Mikael Hernandez and Aaron Leander at the Tunapuna Market in January.
Mc Gregor’s friends, who all did not want to be named, said he was one of several people questioned about the murders.
“The police told us they were arresting us on enquiries but they released all of us without any charges. But before they let us go the police told Dust Boss that they would come back for him to kill him and look at what happened now,” a friend claimed.
The friends also alleged that a shoebox containing Mc Gregor’s savings was also missing after the police exercise.
“We believe that the police take the box full of money. That was Dust Boss little savings in which he took money from that to make sure that we had something to eat. He took care of all of us in the community here and took us under his wings. He did his little business here and we never went out there. We don’t have anything illegal here.”
He called for a thorough and fair probe of the police killings.
“This is a clear execution and we need an independent investigation. We need to know who were the police officers because we are being told that the officers were from North Eastern Division and none were from the Tunapuna Police Station. We have the name and picture of the Inspector of Police who was the only man without masks on the scene here that morning and it was 4 o’clock in the morning, not 5 am. We want to know who was the magistrate that signed off on that warrant too.”
Police yesterday said officers were shot at upon arrival at the apartment building and had no choice but to return fire.
When contacted, West said that an investigator would be assigned to the case “first thing on Monday morning.”