An­na-Lisa Paul

There are no im­me­di­ate plans to rein­tro­duce a po­lice post at John John, Laven­tille, af­ter last Tues­day's in­ci­dent in which Nigel Cae­sar was shot dead by po­lice. Cae­sar, 23, of Block Eight, was shot twice dur­ing an al­leged con­fronta­tion with plain­clothes of­fi­cers around 5.30 pm on Au­gust 21. Af­ter the in­ci­dent, irate res­i­dents blocked roads lead­ing in and out of the area with burn­ing de­bris as they protest­ed.

Cae­sar's rel­a­tives claimed he was un­armed when he was shot, while of­fi­cers claimed they on­ly re­turned fire af­ter Cae­sar shot at them. ASP Ajith Per­sad of the Port-of-Spain CID has since been ap­point­ed to in­ves­ti­gate the in­ci­dent. Asked if the po­lice had in­creased pa­trols in the area since the in­ci­dent, ASP Joanne Archie said: "Pa­trols were height­ened from some­time be­fore in that area and we will con­tin­ue them."

Speak­ing dur­ing the dai­ly me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, on Fri­day, Archie said: "I am not sure if the res­i­dents are an­ti-po­lice but of­fi­cers are there to pro­tect the in­no­cent, in­ves­ti­gate crime and en­sure that are no breach­es in the peace so pa­trols in an area are more than just to deal with one sit­u­a­tion. "The pres­ence of the po­lice is nec­es­sary and al­though peo­ple may be ag­griev­ed by some sit­u­a­tions, we still have our work to do."

Pressed to say if there were any plans to meet with the res­i­dents, Archie said of­fi­cers were al­ways in di­a­logue with mem­bers of the pub­lic. Pre­sent­ed with the au­top­sy find­ings that Cae­sar had been shot twice in the back, Archie de­clined to com­ment as an in­ves­ti­ga­tion was un­der way. She said the find­ings would be made pub­lic once the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was com­plet­ed.

Ques­tioned about sev­er­al events planned to cel­e­brate the na­tion's 50th In­de­pen­dence an­niver­sary and if se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures had been in­creased, Archie said: "With­in all di­vi­sions, there will be a height­ened po­lice pres­ence in­clud­ing foot and mo­bile pa­trols. The po­lice will be out in full force to en­sure that every­one is safe."