Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der is con­fi­dent that the po­lice will thor­ough­ly and fair­ly in­ves­ti­gate the re­port­ed theft of a gun from a Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cer, who had at­tend­ed a Christ­mas din­ner at his sta­tion on Thurs­day night.

The of­fi­cer told in­ves­ti­ga­tors that he left the venue af­ter mid­night on Thurs­day but drove to Baz­zard Street, Monte Grande, Tu­na­puna, when he be­gan to feel un­well and even­tu­al­ly lost con­scious­ness.

The of­fi­cer lat­er re­port­ed that he awoke at around 10.30 am on Fri­day when he no­ticed that his per­son­al firearm–a Smith and Wes­son MRJ6459–and mag­a­zine con­tain­ing 17 rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion was miss­ing from the hol­ster.

Tu­na­puna po­lice were called in and found four spent shells on the floor of the car be­hind the pas­sen­ger-side seat and an­oth­er spent shell out­side the dri­ver-side door.

Po­lice con­fis­cat­ed the spent shells, as well as the of­fi­cer’s Firearms User’s Li­cence (FUL) and a mag­a­zine con­tain­ing six rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions on the mat­ter dur­ing a chil­dren’s Christ­mas par­ty at his con­stituen­cy of­fice on El Do­ra­do Road yes­ter­day, Alexan­der said he felt the po­lice were ca­pa­ble enough to con­duct a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter.

Not­ing the ver­sion of events in the re­port, where the of­fi­cer re­port­ed­ly had to stop dri­ving as he was feel­ing un­well, Alexan­der urged oth­er of­fi­cers not to take the risk of dri­ving if they felt un­well and to use the fa­cil­i­ties at their des­ig­nat­ed po­lice sta­tions to rest and re­cu­per­ate.

“If it did hap­pen, the po­lice sta­tion is a place where you can rest your­self and move on your own time, so if you fin­ished work and you know you’re not in a po­si­tion to dri­ve, take a rest and then leave.”

Alexan­der fur­ther urged of­fi­cers and the wider pub­lic to take their health se­ri­ous­ly with rou­tine check-ups to avoid any se­ri­ous med­ical is­sues from de­vel­op­ing.

He, how­ev­er, not­ed that if the ac­count giv­en by the of­fi­cer was proven to be false by the probe, he was op­ti­mistic that the nec­es­sary ac­tion would be tak­en.

“If that’s not the case, I have all con­fi­dence in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, where I came from, to ad­dress the is­sue the best way they know how.”

Treats for Tu­na­puna chil­dren

Dur­ing the Christ­mas par­ty, chil­dren from in and out of the con­stituen­cy of Tu­na­puna were treat­ed to gifts, snacks, sweets, face paint­ing, boun­cy cas­tles and games.

Alexan­der thanked the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and pri­vate bene­fac­tors for as­sist­ing in co-or­di­nat­ing the treat, which he said was tes­ta­ment to the strong sense of com­mu­ni­ty in Tu­na­puna.

Re­fer­ring to his past ex­pe­ri­ences as a po­lice of­fi­cer, Alexan­der said he would do­nate gifts to chil­dren in need and saw the Christ­mas treat as a nat­ur­al pro­gres­sion of his de­sire to see a stronger sense of com­mu­ni­ty spir­it.

“If Christ­mas could bring this lev­el of uni­ty and to­geth­er­ness, well then we hope and pray it lasts year-round.”–Shane Su­perville