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.