rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
Acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob says it cannot be assumed incidents like those surrounding the one which claimed the life of PC Clarence Gilkes in April have occurred previously.
He made the comment on Friday at a function hosted by the Ministry of National Security in recognition of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2022 at the National Library in Port-of-Spain.
“You cannot link it...every situation is different,” he told reporters.
It’s why he said there are procedures and protocols in place to examine police shooting incidents.
“That’s the reason why we have professional investigators who investigate matters and that’s the reason why you have the oversight body as the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) and then you have the police investigators who will investigate the matter,” he said.
“So we cannot do that. Then we’d have to do that for everything. Every situation.”
Gilkes was shot and killed on April 22 during a police operation in Rich Plain, Diego Martin.
Police initially reported that he was killed by a suspect during an operation in the area. Following this, a manhunt was launched for a main suspect. However, an autopsy subsequently revealed Gilkes was shot in the back of the head
A PCA investigation has concluded otherwise Gilkes was killed by friendly fire.
“The evidence revealed that officers of the TTPS shot at an unarmed civilian and, unfortunately, PC Clarence Gilkes became an unintended target,” the PCA said on Thursday.
The PC also found that members of the TTPS abused their power as they tried to cover up the incident, deliberately misleading Jacob into believing.