Tacarigua res­i­dents staged a fiery protest on Wednes­day night af­ter po­lice ar­rest­ed a 35-year-old man at Thavenot Street. The res­i­dents lit de­bris across the East­ern Main Road, and po­lice and fire­fight­ers had to be called out to douse the fire. This caused a traf­fic pile­up for sev­er­al hours.

Res­i­dents claimed the man was drink­ing at a bar with friends when po­lice hand­cuffed him and took him to an aban­doned house, where he was al­leged­ly as­sault­ed.The res­i­dents said po­lice chased them away when they tried sev­er­al times to res­cue him.

Af­ter the po­lice left the scene, res­i­dents said they called an am­bu­lance for him.Res­i­dent John Din­di­al, who lives near the aban­doned house, said he heard the com­mo­tion.He said: "Po­lice over­do­ing it. I can't tell you why they did it. I heard them ar­gu­ing with him and when they done beat him, they lock him in a room and gone. They came back when the res­i­dents lit fire to the ground.

Mad­ness in Tacarigua

"His broth­ers went in­to the house when the po­lice left. They re­turned dur­ing the protest. We called an am­bu­lance for him and it took two hours for it to come."

Mustapha Has­sanali, a friend of the beat­en man, said he was beat­en bad­ly.

"He had blood com­ing through his mouth and ears. They beat him re­al­ly bad. They brought him from the shop and walk him to the back of his house. He was look­ing for some place to rent," he said.

The beat­ing vic­tim was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where he was mex­am­ined and dis­charged.Po­lice who were wait­ing at the hos­pi­tal took him to the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion, where he was charged with pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion.On Wednes­day night, 37 oth­er peo­ple were ar­rest­ed for pos­ses­sion of nar­cotics, one for pos­ses­sion of a gun and oth­ers on out­stand­ing war­rants. A to­tal of 417 tick­ets were al­so is­sued, po­lice said.

North­ern Di­vi­sion Se­nior Supt David Abra­ham said they were try­ing to con­tin­ue the ex­er­cis­es in north­ern Trinidad un­til crime was re­duced.