Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A police officer, who was shot in his hand while entering a house to arrest a suspect in 2018, has lost his lawsuit seeking compensation for the injury.
In a recent judgment, High Court Judge Margaret Mohammed dismissed Leroy St Clair’s case as she ruled that he failed to prove that his injury was caused by the negligence of his colleagues and supervisors.
The case stemmed from an incident on September 20, 2018, in which St Clair and his colleagues went to execute an arrest warrant at a home in North Eastern Settlement, Sangre Grande.
St Clair entered the house through an open bedroom window and was shot.
Although he claimed that he was shot by a colleague who entered through another entrance, his colleagues testified that he was shot by an armed assailant who was subsequently arrested.
He was taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital, where one of his fingers was amputated, and surgery was performed to reconstruct other injured fingers.
St Clair, who still has difficulty in grasping objects with the hand, was subsequently assessed to be 20 per cent permanently partially disabled.
He was seeking approximately $200,000 in compensation from the lawsuit as he claimed that he still required future surgery to improve the movement of his hand and regularly visits a psychiatrist to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) he suffered since the shooting.
While Justice Mohammed ruled that the T&T Police Service (TTPS) had a duty of care to St Clair as his employer, she noted that its duty was not breached as adequate training was provided to St Clair and his colleagues to perform such operations.
She also pointed out that a detailed briefing was held with the officers involved before the operation was conducted.
“There was a briefing at the school where the officers involved in the police exercise were told of the targets; told of the strategy to be adopted, reminded of the safety procedures; and were organised into teams to conduct the exercise,” Justice Mohammed said.
“The operation was properly planned and executed,” she added.
She noted that based on the evidence of him and his colleagues, it was more plausible that he was shot by an armed assailant in the house than by one of his colleagues.
“In my view, the assailant inside the house, having fired first, created an imminent risk to life, and the officers returned fire proportionately to preserve life. There was no evidence of causation as the Claimant did not see who shot at him,” she added.
As part of her judgment, Justice Mohammed ordered St Clair to pay $39,000 in legal costs.
St Clair was represented by Kenneth Thompson and Carlos Waldron. The Office of the Attorney General was represented by Stefan Jaikaran and Chantal Cunningham.
