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Friday, July 11, 2025

PM defends one shot, one kill

by

Shaliza Hassanali
2373 days ago
20190112
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaks to members of the public during Conversations with the Prime Minister at the Exodus Steel Orchestra pan yard, Tunapuna.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaks to members of the public during Conversations with the Prime Minister at the Exodus Steel Orchestra pan yard, Tunapuna.

ANISTO ALVES

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said he sup­ports the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) one shot, one kill pol­i­cy. Re­spond­ing to a ques­tion on the is­sue dur­ing Thurs­day night's Con­ver­sa­tions with the Prime Min­is­ter at the Ex­o­dus Pan Yard in Tu­na­puna, he said that is what po­lice of­fi­cers are trained to do when con­front­ed by armed crim­i­nals.

Row­ley said thou­sands of cit­i­zens who have had the ex­pe­ri­ence of an il­lic­it firearm di­rect­ed at them with ill will are still griev­ing from the ef­fects of such weapons. He warned gun-tot­ing crim­i­nals that if they shoot at the po­lice, they will have to deal with Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith.

Row­ley gave his views on the is­sue dur­ing his Con­ver­sa­tions with the Prime Min­is­ter at the Ex­o­dus Pa­n­yard, St Au­gus­tine, on Thurs­day.

The is­sue of of­fi­cers killing crim­i­nals was raised by a woman who iden­ti­fied her­self as Mar­lene. She felt such crim­i­nals should be not be killed by of­fi­cers but put be­hind bars. Her com­ment drew ex­pres­sions of dis­agree­ment from the au­di­ence.

One shot, one kill has gen­er­at­ed in­tense de­bate in re­cent weeks, with lo­cal lob­by group Fix­in' T&T and the T&T Law As­so­ci­a­tion ex­press­ing con­cern about the po­lice.

Row­ley said Grif­fith has made it abun­dant­ly clear that if a cit­i­zen ac­quires an il­le­gal firearm and shoots at a po­lice of­fi­cer "un­der the Trinidad and To­ba­go laws the po­lice has been trained to re­turn fire. That is the law."

Com­ment­ing on the sug­ges­tion that po­lice of­fi­cers should aim to shoot crim­i­nals on their "hand and foot," Row­ley point­ed out that "there is no tar­get prac­tice at the po­lice range for hand and foot."

"If you are look­ing at a firearm point­ing in your di­rec­tion, held by a per­son not telling you hel­lo, that frac­tion of a sec­ond that you hes­i­tate to re­spond to a per­son who ac­quires a firearm, points it at you, and even dis­charges it in your di­rec­tion . . . that frac­tion of a sec­ond, you may aim for his hand which is not part of the train­ing that may cost you your life," he said.

His re­sponse was met with loud cheers, whis­tles and clap­ping from the au­di­ence.

Row­ley said Par­lia­ment has giv­en the coun­try's 7000 po­lice of­fi­cers and oth­er au­tho­rised of­fi­cers the right to re­spond "in that sit­u­a­tion," re­fer­ring to the pol­i­cy.

"Don't ac­quire an un­li­censed firearm, worst, don't en­gage in prac­tices where you have to con­front the po­lice with your un­li­censed firearm, worst, don't shoot at the po­lice. Let us not make any bones about it," he said

The Prime Min­is­ter said, "thou­sands of fam­i­lies are still this min­utes griev­ing from the ef­fects of il­lic­it firearms" used on them.

"All we are say­ing to those who are so in­clined, don't do it and then you would not have to deal with Grif­fith," he said.


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