Af­ter months of es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lence, in­clud­ing home in­va­sions, bru­tal rob­beries, the top brass of the Po­lice Ser­vice had al­ready de­cid­ed to re­open the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion, just two days be­fore gun-tot­ing ban­dits killed Matthew Chan­cel­lor in Tabaquite.

Po­lice sources re­vealed to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that af­ter a site vis­it weeks ago to as­sess the sta­tion’s in­fra­struc­ture for re­oc­cu­pa­tion, se­nior of­fi­cials said they had been deal­ing with a bat in­fes­ta­tion and mould prob­lems at the Bras­so sta­tion.

How­ev­er, they ac­knowl­edged that the surge in rob­beries and home in­va­sions in re­cent months forced their hand in re­open­ing the sta­tion, which was closed and re­pur­posed for oth­er polic­ing units back in 2020.

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin yes­ter­day con­firmed that the sta­tion would re­open next week, with the San Rafael Po­lice Sta­tion al­so set to re­open in the com­ing weeks.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, the act­ing Com­mis­sion­er as­sured res­i­dents that they would soon see an in­creased po­lice pres­ence in the ar­eas re­port­ed­ly un­der siege by crim­i­nals.

“Yes, by next week, we will be open­ing the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion, and I am al­so pleased to say that with­in a short space of time, we will be open­ing the San Rafael Po­lice Sta­tion so that we can bet­ter serve the cit­i­zens of T&T.”

But af­ter a fire alarm trig­gered by re­pair work at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in­ter­rupt­ed the brief­ing, which was moved to the Port-of-Spain CID on Sackville Street, Ben­jamin ac­knowl­edged the time had come for the sta­tion to be re­opened.

“We recog­nise at this point in time, giv­en the op­tics in vi­o­lent crime there, we need to en­sure that we have a greater pres­ence. There­fore, as the CoP, I have tak­en it up­on my­self to open it.”

How­ev­er, Caratal/Tor­tu­ga coun­cil­lor Sharen Badal-Ahyew said the Bras­so sta­tion was re­pur­posed in 2020 to ac­com­mo­date oth­er TTPS agen­cies, while all Bras­so man­pow­er and re­sources were re­as­signed to Gran Cou­va against the ad­vice of res­i­dents.

On Sun­day, hours af­ter Chan­cel­lor was killed, vil­lagers in Tabaquite staged a peace walk in ho­n­our of the 21-year-old, who was sup­posed to be bap­tised on the day he died.

Pray­ing for the com­mu­ni­ty, scores of vil­lagers stood on the road­way as they ob­served a mo­ment of si­lence in mem­o­ry of the Sub­way work­er.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Vice Chair­man Hen­ry Awong said Tabaquite res­i­dents were liv­ing in fear, and law-abid­ing cit­i­zens like the Chan­cel­lor fam­i­ly seemed to have no re­course.

Pen­sion­er Julie Gar­cia, who has lived in the com­mu­ni­ty for 77 years, said she of­ten felt like leav­ing Tabaquite be­cause of the crime.

Plea for jus­tice

Mean­while, fight­ing back tears at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James yes­ter­day, Chan­cel­lor’s fa­ther, Maxwe­lo Chan­cel­lor, ap­pealed for jus­tice for his son’s death.

The fa­ther of six called on the po­lice to pro­tect the vil­lage, which he said was un­der siege by crim­i­nals who pil­lage, ter­rorise, and kill.

De­scrib­ing Chan­cel­lor as “lov­ing, car­ing, al­ways with bright eyes, smil­ing, al­ways talk­ing to the ladies,” Maxwe­lo said Chan­cel­lor had been sav­ing and work­ing to­ward his dream of leav­ing T&T for a bet­ter fu­ture abroad.

“Plen­ty of peo­ple love him be­cause he was al­ways a cheer­ful per­son... hap­py, smil­ing, laugh­ing, mak­ing jokes with every­body.”

The fa­ther re­vealed that Matthew’s death had sparked out­rage and re­newed calls for the re­open­ing of the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion.

“There are too many in­no­cent peo­ple in Tabaquite, and crim­i­nals are us­ing this es­cape route as a gold mine—to drill, in­tim­i­date, rob, loot, and kill—be­cause we don’t have a po­lice sta­tion.”

He added: “There are many roads from Bras­so to Gran Cou­va, many es­cape routes, so we need back our sta­tion.

“Right now, they [ban­dits] are bleed­ing and suck­ing peo­ple dry. Tabaquite is gone be­cause we lack po­lice, so ban­dits are ram­pant.”

Sev­er­al farm­ers in Tabaquite said they have been fac­ing in­creased home in­va­sions and theft as out­siders, who they claimed were from Mor­vant, Laven­tille, and Sea Lots, moved in­to the area.

Po­lice yes­ter­day said they had no new leads in con­nec­tion with Chan­cel­lor’s mur­der. Any­one with in­for­ma­tion has been asked to con­tact Crime Stop­pers at 800-TIPS.