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‘Bourg’ residents stage fiery protest for strangled soldier
Published:
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tires burn along the Eastern Main Road, Petite Bourg, yesterday during a protest by residents in the area. Photo: Marcus Gonzales
Dozens of San Juan residents staged a fiery New Year’s Day protest yesterday, demanding justice for murdered Defence Force soldier Curtis Marshall. Relatives, friends and members of community where he lived participated in the protest yesterday morning, burning tyres and drawing a heavy police presence.
The protest follows the release of autopsy results, which showed that Marshall, a lance corporal, was strangled and did not die of an asthma attack, as was initially claimed. Marshall, 30, a soldier at the Defence Force for eight years, collapsed at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas last Saturday night and died at the Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in Cocorite the following morning.
The autopsy, conducted on Sunday at the Forensic Science Centre, Federation Park, St James, listed the cause of death as strangulation. His family is now calling for a full-scale investigation into his death and for those responsible to be brought to justice. Dennis Marshall, his brother, said: “They killed my brother.” He told the media yesterday their protest is one for justice.
“The army said he died of asthma but the autopsy said he died of strangulation. My brother went to work and didn’t come home.” He called on Chief of Defence Staff Kenrick Maharaj to investigate his brother’s death and vowed to continue the protest until the family got justice. Senior Western Division police officers confirmed the findings of the autopsy and stated that homicide detectives have now taken over the case.
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