The se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer tasked with in­ves­ti­gat­ing the deaths of three friends from Moru­ga, who were shot and killed by po­lice of­fi­cers in 2011, has de­nied par­tic­i­pat­ing in a deal which saw mur­der charges against one of the of­fi­cers be­ing dropped in ex­change for her tes­ti­mo­ny against her col­leagues. 

Re­tired As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP) Ray­mond Craig was quizzed about the arrange­ment as he was cross-ex­am­ined be­fore High Court Judge Car­la Brown-An­toine and a 12 mem­ber ju­ry at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. 

Craig ad­mit­ted that WPC Nicole Clement, who is yet to tes­ti­fy in the case, was ini­tial­ly charged along­side Sgt Khem­raj Sa­hadeo and PCs Re­nal­do Re­viero, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Ju­man,  An­to­nio Ra­madin, and Glenn Singh with mur­der­ing Alana Dun­can, Ker­ron Ec­cles, and Abi­gail John­son in Bar­rack­pore on Ju­ly 22, 2011. 

Asked by de­fence at­tor­ney Ul­ric Sker­ritt why Clement was no longer be­fore the court, Craig main­tained that he could pro­vide no ex­pla­na­tion. 

He said: “That is for the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) to say. She was in cus­tody for mur­der un­til the DPP’s in­ter­ven­tion.”

Craig re­peat­ed­ly stat­ed that he could not re­call tak­ing a state­ment from Clement at the Port-of-Spain State Prison af­ter she was charged. 

Even af­ter be­ing hand­ed the pur­port­ed state­ment, which he ad­mit­ted had his sig­na­ture on it, Craig still main­tained that he could not re­call the meet­ing.

Craig was ac­cused by Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan, who is rep­re­sent­ing three of the of­fi­cers, of not be­ing “fair and dis­pas­sion­ate” in his in­ves­ti­ga­tion. 

“That is not true. I was very fair. I am do­ing every­thing to as­sist this court,” Craig said. 

Craig ad­mit­ted that Clement took him and his in­ves­tiga­tive team to a sec­ond crime scene lo­cat­ed off the M2 Ring Road in Wood­land. 

Asked by Sker­ritt whether a glove that was re­cov­ered at the scene was sent for DNA test­ing, Craig ad­mit­ted that he could not say con­clu­sive­ly but sug­gest­ed that mul­ti­ple tests would have been per­formed by of­fi­cials of the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James. 

He ad­mit­ted that he did not give in­struc­tions to pre­serve the sec­ond scene up­on be­ing alert­ed of its ex­is­tence. 

“It was a very lone­ly area where peo­ple did not tra­verse,” he said. 

Craig al­so ad­mit­ted that he did not re­quest that a firearm pur­port­ed­ly linked to the trio be sent for fin­ger­print test­ing. 

“I con­clud­ed many peo­ple would have han­dled the firearm,” Craig said. 

Dur­ing the hear­ing, Khan, who is rep­re­sent­ing three of the of­fi­cers, re­quest­ed that CCTV footage of the shoot­ing, cap­tured by cam­eras at an au­to parts re­tail­er, be played. 

Asked whether he was able to hear a gun­shot al­leged­ly fired by the trio be­fore the of­fi­cers re­turned fire, Craig said no as he main­tained that he on­ly heard one set of con­tin­u­ous gun­shots. 

Craig al­so claimed that he could not dis­cern what was be­ing said be­fore and af­ter the vol­ley of gun­shots in­clud­ing a woman, who was heard say­ing: “Stop shoot­ing. I am com­ing out the car.” 

“I could not hear what is be­ing said clear­ly,” he said. 

Back­ground of the case

State pros­e­cu­tors have con­tend­ed that the of­fi­cers were tar­get­ing Dun­can’s com­mon-law hus­band Shum­ba James on the night of the shoot­ing. 

In his tes­ti­mo­ny ear­li­er in the tri­al, James said that on the day of the shoot­ing Dun­can ac­com­pa­nied him as he went to St Mary’s Po­lice Post to re­port as part of his bail con­di­tions for a charge re­lat­ed to a rob­bery in 2005. 

He claimed that af­ter com­plet­ing the process, he and Dun­can vis­it­ed sev­er­al bars in the com­mu­ni­ty where they met Ec­cles, John­son, and two oth­er friends. 

He said that when the group de­cid­ed to dri­ve to Bar­rack­pore to pur­chase food, he de­cid­ed to go with the two oth­er friends while Dun­can, Ec­cles, and John­son fol­lowed be­hind in his broth­er’s car that he had bor­rowed. 

James claimed that up­on reach­ing the cor­ner of Rochard Dou­glas Road and Gun­ness Trace in Bar­rack­pore he saw a group of men, who he sus­pect­ed of be­ing po­lice of­fi­cers, stand­ing at the side of the road. 

He claimed that he and his two friends heard a vol­ley of gun­shots short­ly af­ter they drove past the group. 

The of­fi­cers are al­so be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Aris­sa Ma­haraj.

Gilbert Pe­ter­son, SC, Elaine Green, Giselle Fer­gu­son-Heller, and Katiesha Am­brose-Per­sads­ingh are pros­e­cut­ing.