As one enters the minimalistic, all-white living room of Mervyn Gilkes, two items immediately stand out.
To the left of the room, against a wall, there’s a small picture of his late brother, Police Constable Clarence Gilkes, posing proudly in uniform in front of a national flag.
Then, a short distance away, no more than 10 feet, resting on the dining room table, is another picture of PC Gilkes.
The second picture, larger than the first, is the image that was placed on top of the slain officer’s casket.
It’s now been more than two months since Mervyn’s brother was killed while on duty during an exercise in Rich Plain, Diego Martin, on April 22.
On Thursday, a report by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) concluded that 44-year-old Gilkes was shot dead by a police bullet and that members of the TTPS abused their power, also deliberately misleading acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob on the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The PCA, in its findings, called the incident one of the clearest examples of abuse of police power the PCA has investigated to date.
“It’s a real sad thing and it is still hard because we lost a brother. And it wasn’t just a brother, like a family member who was just existing, it was somebody who was there for us, and it was a loving, hard-working person,” Mervyn Gilkes, brother of the late PC Gilkes, told Guardian Media yesterday.
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions, because remember this is a legal matter, so, then again, you have to be careful what you’re saying…It have a lot I could say but I still have to watch the way this legal process going.”
Gilkes said his family was patiently waiting for the outcome of the PCA investigation and they believe its findings now give a reason for optimism that the entire truth will come out.
He said the Gilkes family continue to hope and pray that the findings of the second investigation—the one being conducted by the T&T Police Service—will prove to be accurate and conclusive.
Asked if he was confident justice will be served in the end, he said, “It’s Trinidad and Tobago. You know anything does happen. So although that report came out, we are not sure what they are going to do. I mean, no matter what they do, you can’t bring him back, but at least, you want justice. You want the right thing to be done,” he said.
“To be honest, if I could talk to him (my brother), I’ll tell him that I know if it was me who died, he would have fought for me to get justice. I’m sure about that. So, I will do the same.”
When Guardian Media first spoke to Mervyn back on April 24, the TTPS was adamant that a civilian—a Rich Plain resident—was responsible for Gilkes’ death.
Believing the police position, Gilkes admitted that all sorts of thoughts went through his head about what he would have done to the person responsible.
“I’m not a person who goes to church but I believe there is a God. So you will say things and you will have hate but you will tell yourself, if I meet him, it will be something, but then later you will come back and say, God, that’s for you to deal with,” he said at the time.
The findings of Thursday’s PCA investigation found that: “The scientific evidence gathered by the PCA clearly demonstrates PC Gilkes was fatally shot by one of his fellow officers. However, before this evidence became apparent, the police officers informed the acting CoP that an unarmed civilian would have shot PC Gilkes, which led to his death, and caused the police service to launch a manhunt in order to ‘deal with the persons responsible for this act.”
The PCA has made recommendations to Jacob and the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard following its probe.