In a nation already reeling from some of the highest murder rates in the world, April proved to be the bloodiest month this year.
Some 49 people were murdered in just 30 days. That represented a 25 per cent increase over the 39 people killed in April 2018, according to official data from the Crime and Problem Analysis Unit of the TTPS (see side box).
Police blamed the spike on internal gang rivalry, wars between gangs, and increased activity among Venezuelan criminals in the local narcotics trade.
The killings came in clusters. Over the four-day Easter weekend, the death toll jumped by 11 when police tallied homicides from unrelated incidents. Five people were killed in 24 hours between April 26 and 27. A family of four, including a seven-year-old girl, was found with their throats slit in a car in Toco on April 12. Another family of three was shot to death in their vehicle in Corinth on April 29.
“April exploded into a bloodbath,” said criminologist Daurius Figueira, whose research specialises in the drug trade.
Acting Commissioner of Police, Harold Phillip, confirmed that illegal drugs played a major role in driving last month’s homicide rate. He revealed few details about the involvement of criminal gangs in violent murders.
“Preliminary investigations indicated that most of these crimes occurred as a result of control for drug turf, and revenge,” Phillip told Guardian Media in a text message. “There were also some unfortunate domestic-related murders.”
The killings continued unabated into May. Gun battles between law enforcement and residents in Big Yard, Carenage, last Friday left a trail of death. Three people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed by gunfire, and four more were injured in the melee. Police have not classified these deaths apart from saying the victims were killed in a police-related shooting.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, the MP for the area, found a community on edge when he made an unannounced visited on Saturday. One resident, alleging corrupt police officers are targeting members of the community, gave the Prime Minister an ultimatum: “If this ent solve, we go [deal with it] different.”
Once allies, gang members become foes
Nearly half—57 of the 120 murders committed between January and March of this year—were motivated by gangs and drugs, according to the Police Service’s classification of the killings.
Figueira said leadership changes in some gangs over the last year have disrupted the status quo, setting the stage for some of the killings that unfolded last month.
“You continue to have the dislocation on the ground where key personnel in 2018 were ‘taken out’ and it’s new management,” Figueira said. “That reverberated in gangland. So those who are aligned to those who were ‘taken out’ are now in a very precarious position because they are living daily expecting to be killed.”
“We love to talk about Muslim (gang) and Rasta City (gang) and say everything is that, but what we are not realising is there are fights within the groups,” he said.
Law enforcement intelligence documents seen by Guardian Media last month confirmed the presence of members of Venezuelan drug cartels in Trinidad and Tobago. Figueira believes they are trying to supply gang members who are being “starved out” of their old turf.
“They are making big promises that they can supply the ganja and the guns you need and they are getting a hearing from the people who need supplies,” he said.
IS APRIL THE START OF A WORRYING TREND?
As of April 30, the overall homicide toll was 169, just five fewer over the same period in 2018. Murders climbed from 120 at the end of March 2019 to 169 by the end of April, a 41 per cent increase.
The number of homicides in April exceeded the 2019 monthly average of 42. If killings continue at this rate, Trinidad and Tobago is on course to add to its grim track record of surpassing 500 murders for a second consecutive year — and for the fourth time in the nation’s history.
“April kickstarted a wave,” Figueira said. “We have to see if the momentum continues.”
Almost those killed last month, 83 per cent were men, who have historically represented the highest number of homicide victims in Trinidad and Tobago.
Phillip said the homicides were concentrated in the Western, Port-of-Spain, and North-Eastern Divisions, averaging about nine murders in each.
BLOODY START TO NEW MONTH
Violence surged at the start of May. An elderly couple in Tobago, who were good friends with Prime Minister Rowley, was found brutally murdered in their home on May 2. A woman police constable was set afire, allegedly by a man she knew, at her home in San Juan yesterday. She is in critical condition at hospital. Around the same time, Venezuelan national, Katherine Diaz, was being stabbed and chopped to death in Princes Town, allegedly by a male relative. Another family of three were chopped repeatedly in Palo Seco yesterday. A suspect has been detained.
The other affliction driving the murder rate - people’s propensity to act on blinding rage and hatred - accounted for one third of the murders by the end of March 2019. Police list ‘revenge’ and ‘altercation’ as the triggers for those killings.
“Killings due to altercations point in part to our stunted social skills...and inability to resolve conflict without resorting to aggression and violence, factors that are also involved in domestic violence,” lamented Dr Katija Khan, a lecturer in clinical psychology at UWI St. Augustine.
Referring to the family of four found dead in a car in Toco, Figueira said domestic violence is “a symptom of the hard times” as the economy contracts.
“There is a dislocation, and there is a tendency for that to be reflected in violence in groups familiar with each other,” he said.
GRIFFITH SAYS LITTLE
As the bodies piled up in April and the start of May, Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, was involved in other high-profile stories: the search of reggae artiste Buju Banton’s hotel room, the Commissioner’s Instagram-ready apology, his cameo at Banton’s concert, and his sparring with the media over the police visit to Sat Maharaj’s TV Jaagriti.
At the only police briefing chaired by Commissioner Griffith for the month, on April 24, he said nothing about the double-digit Easter weekend slaughter. Those killings happened while police were on a heightened “Red Alert.”
Guardian Media reached out to the Commissioner, who is reportedly out of the country, on WhatsApp for his comments on this story. He directed us to Acting Commissioner Phillip.
Figueira contends the TTPS needs a different type of policing to dismantle the gangs, and should make use of the Anti-Gang law passed last year.
“The Anti-Gang (law) is just a battering ram,” he said. “To penetrate and dismantle you need long-term, high quality covert work...because you have to build cases. To date, I have seen not seen signs of an organisation dismantled.”
He said the TTPS needs to apply the methodology it used to probe alleged corruption and conspiracy involving former Attorney General, Anand Ramlogan, UNC Senator, Gerald Ramdeen, and Queen’s Counsel, Vincent Nelson, and “flip” co-conspirators in gangs like they did with Nelson’s plea deal.
Phillip told Guardian Media that police continue “to collect, analyse and evaluate the available intelligence to operationalise it.”
He insisted strategies have produced results, citing the arrests of offenders and the seizures of illegal firearms and drugs.
Within days of being appointed last August, Commissioner Griffith promised that by the time his tenure hits the one year mark, the Police Service would be more efficient and effective.
While there have been rescues of kidnap victims, major drug busts, and now corruption investigations leading to charges against two high-profile politicians, the homicide rate is regarded as the most tangible indicator of the effectiveness of police departments.
The statistics so far show little change in the body count.