Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has claimed that some per­sons were paid to par­tic­i­pate in this morn­ing's vi­o­lent protest ac­tion over po­lice bru­tal­i­ty in and around Port-of-Spain.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at the min­istry's of­fice at Aber­crom­by Street in Port-of-Spain, a short while ago, Young claimed that he had re­ceived re­ports of per­sons be­ing re­cruit­ed by "crim­i­nal el­e­ments" to per­form or­ches­trat­ed acts in­clud­ing block­ing roads and clash­ing with po­lice of­fi­cers.

"Who is pay­ing these peo­ple? Who stands to gain from dis­rupt­ing the peace and qui­et in Port-of-Spain?" Young asked.

Young did not re­veal who were the "crim­i­nal el­e­ments" be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by law en­force­ment of­fi­cers were but said: "Crim­i­nal el­e­ments are not al­ways who we call "gang mem­bers"."

Dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, Young not­ed that the protests were sparked by a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing in Mor­vant on Sat­ur­day, in which Joel Ja­cob, Noel Di­a­mond, and Is­rael Clin­ton were killed.

While Young ad­mit­ted that he too had viewed CCTV footage of the in­ci­dent, which were sub­se­quent­ly shared on so­cial me­dia, he

called on cit­i­zens to wait on the re­sults of in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­ing con­duct­ed the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA).

"We want a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion. It is not for us to play judge and ju­ry and de­cide who is right or wrong," Young said.

Ques­tioned whether the protests in bor­der­ing com­mu­ni­ties in east Port-of-Spain con­trolled by mem­bers of the coun­try's ri­val gangs may be an in­di­ca­tion that they had tem­porar­i­ly put their dif­fer­ences aside in an ap­par­ent show of sol­i­dar­i­ty, Young said yes.

Young con­firmed re­ports that a third-floor win­dow at the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs build­ing at Rich­mond

Street had been hit with a pro­jec­tile.

Young stat­ed that he was not too con­cerned by the in­ci­dent as over the past few years there had been sev­er­al iso­lat­ed cas­es of per­sons fir­ing long-range shots at tall build­ings in Port-of-Spain in­clud­ing the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion build­ing at St Vin­cent Street.

How­ev­er, He not­ed that he was dis­turbed by re­ports that some po­lice of­fi­cers were fired up­on while re­spond­ing to in­ci­dents in east Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day morn­ing. He claimed that no po­lice of­fi­cers had been se­ri­ous­ly in­jured, at the time of the press con­fer­ence.

Young sought to as­sure cit­i­zens that the TTPS and the De­fence Force had been de­ployed to strate­gic lo­ca­tions in and around the

city to keep the peace and to en­sure that roads are not blocked when com­muters are re­turn­ing home lat­er to­day.