Camille Clarke

Hours af­ter a se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer was shot dead dur­ing a car­jack­ing out­side his Point Lisas home, eight sus­pects were round­ed up for ques­tion­ing in con­nec­tion with the in­ci­dent. Up to late yes­ter­day the sus­pects, all from the Ch­agua­nas area, re­mained in cus­tody. Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Joel Nedd, 57, an of­fi­cer with more than 40 years ser­vice, was con­front­ed by two men short­ly af­ter he ar­rived at his Pel­i­can Av­enue home, Pt Lisas Gar­dens, Cou­va, at around 9.45 pm on Mon­day night. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Nedd was shot as he strug­gled with his as­sailants. He at­tempt­ed to run and was shot in the back. Nedd col­lapsed and died. The sus­pects fled the scene in Nedd's bur­gundy Almera car. It was found aban­doned yes­ter­day morn­ing at Tom Street, Long­denville, not far from the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion. An­oth­er ve­hi­cle which in­ves­ti­ga­tors said was used by the rob­bers was found at Crown Trace, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas.

Nedd, who was as­signed to the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, Port-of-Spain, and had pre­vi­ous­ly served in Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and as a drill in­struc­tor at the Po­lice Train­ing Col­lege, was due to re­tire next year. Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er Mau­rice Pig­gott and As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er Fitzroy Fred­er­icks, along with oth­er of­fi­cers, vis­it­ed the crime scene. The body was viewed by the dis­trict med­ical of­fi­cer and or­dered re­moved to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre for an au­top­sy. Po­lice said Nedd had just re­turned home af­ter an of­fi­cial en­gage­ment and did not have time to en­ter the premis­es when he was ac­cost­ed by the rob­bers. Rel­a­tives at the scene on Mon­day night said they heard loud ex­plo­sions but thought it was "scratch bombs and fire­crack­ers." They said Nedd "was a good man be­cause he was al­ways in church." In a re­lease yes­ter­day, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Nedd's fam­i­ly and col­leagues. Nedd, who was an arch­bish­op in the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Faith, was be­ing mourned yes­ter­day by the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty.

"He is a big loss to the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty and a piece of jew­el," said Arch­bish­op Bar­bara Gray-Burke, of the Coun­cil of El­ders-Spir­i­tu­al of the Shouter Bap­tist Faith. "We had ex­pec­ta­tions he would have done a lot. He was loved by one and all in the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty. We are in mourn­ing over his death. It has every­one dev­as­tat­ed," Gray-Burke said. In a brief in­ter­view at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Tem­ple Court, yes­ter­day evening Min­is­ter John Sandy said Almera mo­tor­cars were the lat­est ve­hi­cles tar­get­ed by rob­bers. "I heard Nedd had an Almera and now that is what every­body wants. That is what the rob­bers are car­jack­ing. I do not know if it is for parts," Sandy said. He said in the past oth­er for­eign used ve­hi­cles were stolen by thieves. "I know it used to be Maz­das or oth­er cars. I do not know if it is be­cause the parts are cheap but now it is Almeras," he said. The Min­is­ter said Nedd's death was a tragedy. "It is most un­for­tu­nate and I spoke with the com­mis­sion­er about it yes­ter­day. He said he did not have an of­fi­cial re­port. I did not know if Nedd was armed or what re­al­ly hap­pened," Sandy said.