Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der says sev­er­al peo­ple have been de­tained as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the mur­ders of four peo­ple, in­clud­ing a nine-year-old child, in Mor­vant on Sun­day.

The is­sue was raised by Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi, dur­ing the sit­ting of the Sen­ate yes­ter­day. Al-Rawi asked what im­me­di­ate mea­sures were be­ing im­ple­ment­ed to ad­dress the risk of reprisal killings fol­low­ing the sus­pect­ed gang-re­lat­ed at­tack.

The group—com­pris­ing the child, her un­cle and two oth­er peo­ple—was am­bushed and killed in what in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve was a gang-re­lat­ed in­ci­dent.

In re­sponse, Alexan­der said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice had al­ready tak­en de­ci­sive ac­tion.

“In re­sponse to this heinous act, the TT Po­lice Ser­vice has tak­en im­me­di­ate de­ci­sions and ac­tion. Sev­er­al per­sons have al­ready been de­tained in con­nec­tion with the mat­ter,” he said.

Ad­dress­ing con­cerns about pos­si­ble re­tal­i­a­tion, Alexan­der said spe­cialised units had been de­ployed to the area.

“To specif­i­cal­ly ad­dress the risk of reprisal, spe­cialised units have been de­ployed to the area. They are main­tain­ing peace through ac­tive in­tel­li­gence-led pa­trols and height­ened sur­veil­lance with­in the com­mu­ni­ty,” he added.

How­ev­er, fol­low-up queries from Al-Rawi were not al­lowed. - Gail Alexan­der