CHESTER SAM­BRA­NO

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Er­la Christo­pher, says the Po­lice Ser­vice is not daunt­ed by the re­cent spate of mur­ders in this coun­try.

Eleven killings were record­ed over this past week­end.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued late on Sun­day night, Ag CoP Christo­pher said:

"The week­end has in­deed been an un­wel­comed one. How­ev­er, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) con­tin­ues to work as­sid­u­ous­ly to in­ves­ti­gate the re­cent mur­ders, pur­su­ing sev­er­al strong leads.”

She said as it re­lates to the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion mur­ders, ear­ly in­di­ca­tors sug­gest there are con­nect­ing fea­tures, which im­plies that the same group of in­di­vid­u­als are re­spon­si­ble for these acts.

"Our in­ves­ti­ga­tors are pur­su­ing fur­ther leads," she as­sured.

The Top Cop said with re­spect to the triple mur­ders in Cara­po, gang ac­tiv­i­ties in that area con­tin­ue to en­gage po­lice at­ten­tion and they are pur­su­ing cer­tain leads.

She added that in the North-East­ern Di­vi­sion, which in­cludes Mor­vant and Blan­chisseuse, po­lice in­for­ma­tion in­di­cates these mur­ders were as a re­sult of dis­putes be­tween com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers.

"Our in­ves­ti­ga­tors are work­ing fever­ish­ly on the ground to bring the per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice," she said.

With re­spect to the burnt body in the ve­hi­cle at Clax­ton Bay, the de­ceased re­mains uniden­ti­fied.  How­ev­er, pre­lim­i­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that the burnt-out ve­hi­cle had been re­port­ed stolen ear­li­er this month, from the East­ern Di­vi­sion.

Fi­nal­ly, in­ves­ti­ga­tors are cur­rent­ly work­ing with rel­a­tives to as­cer­tain a pos­si­ble mo­tive for the re­port of homi­cide in the San­gre Grande dis­trict, where the vic­tim was a busi­ness­man.

Ag CoP Christo­pher said the preva­lence of il­le­gal guns “in our com­mu­ni­ties is a cen­tral fo­cus of the Ser­vice”, and not­ed she is di­rect­ing strate­gies tar­get­ing the in­flux of firearms.

“We are not daunt­ed by the un­for­tu­nate and dis­turb­ing spate of vi­o­lence over this week­end,” she as­sert­ed. “We will con­tin­ue to in­ten­si­fy our crack­down on gangs to break the hold of the dead­ly gang cul­ture and crim­i­nal­i­ty that leaves a trail of death and de­spair with­in our com­mu­ni­ties.”

The Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er added:

“What we may be wit­ness­ing is the storm be­fore the calm, as the TTPS will con­tin­ue to use its re­sources to su­press these gangs and oth­er crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. We will not stop ap­ply­ing pres­sure on those who are de­ter­mined to dis­rupt and strike fear in the lives of all law-abid­ing cit­i­zens. We will keep up the fight. God will­ing, we will suc­ceed."