God alone knows.

This was the ex­pla­na­tion giv­en by Shum­ba James for switch­ing cars with his com­mon-law wife, Alana Dun­can, be­fore she and two friends were shot and killed by po­lice of­fi­cers in 2011.

James made the claim on Tues­day while be­ing cross-ex­am­ined in the tri­al of six po­lice of­fi­cers charged with mur­der­ing Dun­can, Ker­ron Ec­cles and Abi­gail John­son.

Tes­ti­fy­ing be­fore High Court Judge Car­la Brown-An­toine, at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, James claimed that on Ju­ly 22, 2011, 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 home in­va­sion 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 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.

James, who said he be­lieved that the of­fi­cers were con­duct­ing a road­block, claimed that he heard one of­fi­cer say “look the car” as he and his friends were al­lowed to dri­ve past.

James claimed that he and his friends then heard a vol­ley of gun­shots.

How­ev­er, he could not re­call how many ex­plo­sions he heard or how long they last­ed.

He said that he in­struct­ed the dri­ver to not stop and asked to be dropped off at the home of his “spir­i­tu­al fa­ther”.

While be­ing cross-ex­am­ined by Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan, James was asked to ex­plain his de­ci­sion to trav­el with his friends and leave Dun­can with Ec­cles and John­son.

“To be hon­est with you, I feel on­ly God alone knows,” James said.

James al­so re­peat­ed­ly de­nied fab­ri­cat­ing his claims about wit­ness­ing the shoot­ing and over­hear­ing the of­fi­cer.

“I don’t have a rea­son to lie about some­thing like that,” James said.

Asked whether he wit­nessed some­one in his broth­er’s car shoot­ing at the po­lice of­fi­cers be­fore they re­turned fire, James said no.

“I nev­er see any­body fire shots from my broth­er’s car,” James said.

James claimed that he be­gan his re­la­tion­ship with Dun­can in 2005 be­fore he was even­tu­al­ly charged over the home in­va­sion.

He claimed that their re­la­tion­ship con­tin­ued whilst he was on re­mand for five years as Dun­can would fre­quent­ly vis­it him in prison be­fore he was even­tu­al­ly grant­ed bail in 2010.

Pressed on the rob­bery with vi­o­lence charge, James stat­ed that he was ac­quit­ted af­ter his judge-alone tri­al was con­clud­ed in Au­gust.

Asked why he gave po­lice a state­ment al­most two years af­ter the shoot­ing, James claimed that he went in­to hid­ing and gave it (the state­ment) when he was even­tu­al­ly held by the po­lice.

In his cross-ex­am­i­na­tion, at­tor­ney Ul­ric Sker­ritt quizzed James about the ve­hi­cle he claimed was his broth­er’s.

While James claimed that his broth­er had the white Nis­san B15 for over a year be­fore the shoot­ing and that he would bor­row it from time to time to re­port at the sta­tion, Sker­ritt claimed that it was stolen at gun­point sev­er­al months be­fore the shoot­ing.

James main­tained his claims as he de­nied know­ing the car was in fact stolen.

Sgt Khem­raj Sa­hadeo and PCs Re­nal­do Re­viero, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Ju­man, An­to­nio Ra­madin, and Glenn Singh are charged with mur­der­ing the trio.

Dur­ing his open­ing ad­dress in the case, ear­li­er this year, spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Gilbert Pe­ter­son, SC, claimed that hours be­fore the shoot­ing Singh was con­tact­ed by two se­nior of­fi­cers who told him they were build­ing a case against James for three mur­ders.

Pe­ter­son claimed that the se­nior of­fi­cers told Singh to look out for the car James was known to have used.

In their de­fence, the of­fi­cers are con­tend­ing that they act­ed in self-de­fence as they claimed the three friends shot at them and they re­turned fire.

The of­fi­cers are al­so rep­re­sent­ed by Aris­sa Ma­haraj.

Elaine Green, Giselle Fer­gu­son-Heller and Katiesha Am­brose-Per­sads­ingh are ap­pear­ing along­side Pe­ter­son for the State.

The tri­al is set to re­sume to­mor­row.