Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Fac­ing a boun­ty on their heads, South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force po­lice of­fi­cers who were in­volved in the fa­tal po­lice shoot­ing of sus­pect­ed crim­i­nal Adelle Gilbert have not yet re­turned to work.

The of­fi­cers who were part of an ex­er­cise at Carl­ton Lane, San Fer­nan­do, on Thurs­day, be­gan re­ceiv­ing coun­selling from the Po­lice So­cial and Wel­fare Unit.

Two of the of­fi­cers who were iden­ti­fied in a Face­book post have al­so been giv­en ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, a source who is close to one of the of­fi­cers said life has not been the same for the of­fi­cers since Gilbert was shot and killed.

"It is sad to see se­nior State of­fi­cials mak­ing com­ments based on a video. No­body was pick­ing up spent shells. This was very de­mo­ti­vat­ing," the source said.

"These po­lice of­fi­cers have been do­ing sur­veil­lance work and leav­ing the sta­tion at all hours of the night and morn­ing. They are now very de­mo­ti­vat­ed when they hear the com­ments that se­nior State of­fi­cials have made."

In an in­ter­view, Se­nior Supt of the South­ern Di­vi­sion Ade­line Pes­nel said in­ter­nal pre­cau­tions have been tak­en to pro­tect the lives of the Task Force of­fi­cers who were in­stru­men­tal in re­triev­ing over 150 guns and tak­ing mil­lions of dol­lars worth of nar­cotics from off the streets over the past year.

Asked whether the re­cent video post­ed by a man claim­ing to be Gilbert's cousin was be­ing treat­ed as a di­rect threat by the TTPS, Pes­nel said, "Well we have all seen it and we can all de­ter­mine whether it was a threat."

She said how the threats would be treat­ed was a mat­ter for Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Harold Phillip. Pes­nel al­so said that in­ves­ti­ga­tor Yusuff Gaf­far has not yet com­plet­ed the pre­lim­i­nary re­port in­to Gilbert's death.

"He is still in the process of gath­er­ing state­ments from wit­ness­es. He has not yet sub­mit­ted the re­port but we have had sev­er­al con­ver­sa­tions," Pes­nel said.

She said the safe­ty and wel­fare of the po­lice of­fi­cers were of para­mount im­por­tance, so de­tails about their se­cu­ri­ty could not be di­vulged. An­oth­er se­nior of­fi­cer who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said the Crim­i­nal Gang and In­tel­li­gence Unit was do­ing a threat as­sess­ment of the video to de­ter­mine whether any charges could be laid.

Po­lice of­fi­cers from oth­er Crime Sup­pres­sion Units in the South­ern and South West­ern Di­vi­sion said they too need­ed ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

Gilbert, 34, of Em­ba­cadere, San Fer­nan­do, died af­ter be­ing shot by po­lice at an HDC apart­ment in Carl­ton Lane.

An au­top­sy showed that he was shot twice in the back and the bul­lets ex­it­ed his chest.