Derek Achong

The De­fence Force has launched an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to a brawl which took place at a bar in To­ba­go last Fri­day. The in­ci­dent left a Coast Guard of­fi­cer, a sol­dier and a civil­ian in hos­pi­tal.Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, civ­il mil­i­tary af­fairs of­fi­cer of the De­fence Force Ma­jor Al Alexan­der said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion would be done si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly with the one be­ing done by To­ba­go po­lice.

He said the par­al­lel pro­ce­dure was nor­mal for the De­fence Force in in­stances where en­list­ed men were ac­cused of crim­i­nal con­duct and its in­ves­ti­ga­tors would sup­ple­ment and as­sist their coun­ter­parts in the Po­lice Ser­vice.Alexan­der said as of Tues­day evening, the two De­fence Force of­fi­cers who were in­jured in the brawl were still ward­ed at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal."The sol­dier (Lance Cpl Vir­gil Ger­vais) is do­ing well and the sailor (Philroy Dou­glas) has been tak­en out of the In­ten­sive Care Unit (ICU)," Alexan­der said.

Around 3.25 am last Fri­day, a group of mil­i­tary per­son­nel were lim­ing at a bar in To­ba­go when the fra­cas broke out.Ger­vais, 33, of Black Rock, To­ba­go, suf­fered se­ri­ous head in­juries, and Dou­glas, 28, of Black Rock, To­ba­go, was shot in the chest.A 24-year-old civil­ian, Nicholas George, a TTEC em­ploy­ee from Mary's Hill, To­ba­go, re­port­ed­ly in­ter­vened in the melee and suf­fered head in­juries. He too re­mained ward­ed in hos­pi­tal up to late yes­ter­day.

In an in­ter­view on Tues­day, Lt Com­man­der Kirk Jean-Bap­tist, of the Coast Guard said the De­fence Force was wait­ing for the re­sults of the po­lice and in­ter­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­fore de­cid­ing on pos­si­ble dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures, if any, for of­fi­cers who were in­volved.Jean-Bap­tiste not­ed that de­spite the de­tails of the in­ci­dent that were re­port­ed in the me­dia, the De­fence Force could not con­firm who in­sti­gat­ed the brawl.

"We have to let the po­lice do their work. At this time we don't know if it was an of­fi­cer or civil­ian who did the shoot­ing," Jean-Bap­tiste said.He said the in­ci­dent was cap­tured by CCTV cam­eras at the bar, but De­fence Force in­ves­ti­ga­tors were yet to view the footage.