An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the death of an of­fi­cer at­tached to the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Cpl Jo­hannes Joseph is al­leged to have tak­en his own life on Tues­day around 1.54 pm at

his home along Madoos­ingh Dri­ve, Bois Bande, San­gre Grande.

Joseph, who was at­tached to the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), was found ly­ing in an un­fin­ished con­crete struc­ture, bleed­ing from a head wound.

Re­spond­ing of­fi­cers found Joseph still alive and rushed him to the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead at 2.04 pm.

An­oth­er IATF of­fi­cer who was shot in the right thigh dur­ing the in­ci­dent was al­so treat­ed and ward­ed at hos­pi­tal.

Re­ports in­di­cate the sec­ond of­fi­cer went to Joseph’s home to as­sist him with some tile work, and found Joseph stand­ing in the gallery with a firearm point­ed at his head.

It was al­leged that Joseph made cer­tain ut­ter­ances be­fore walk­ing to the back of the house, where it was re­port­ed that he sat on a con­crete block and fired a sin­gle shot, which in­jured the oth­er of­fi­cer who had been stand­ing close by.

The in­ci­dent has prompt­ed calls from with­in po­lice cir­cles for a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTPS said it was “deeply sad­dened by the un­for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances” sur­round­ing the of­fi­cer’s death and con­firmed that the mat­ter was en­gag­ing the full at­ten­tion of in­ves­ti­ga­tors in the East­ern Di­vi­sion.

“We ex­tend our heart­felt con­do­lences to the of­fi­cer’s fam­i­ly, col­leagues, and loved ones as they nav­i­gate this painful and un­ex­pect­ed loss,” the state­ment said.

The TTPS al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­cour­age peo­ple ex­pe­ri­enc­ing emo­tion­al or per­son­al dif­fi­cul­ties to seek sup­port.

“This trag­ic event is a solemn re­minder that many among us, of­fi­cers and civil­ians alike, may be car­ry­ing heavy, un­seen bur­dens. Any­one can feel over­whelmed, and no one should face those mo­ments in iso­la­tion,” the state­ment said.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro urged rel­a­tives, friends, neigh­bours and col­leagues to be at­ten­tive to the well-be­ing of those around them.

“Sud­den changes in be­hav­iour, with­draw­al, ex­pres­sions of dis­tress, or signs that some­one is not cop­ing should nev­er be ig­nored. A sim­ple check-in, a con­ver­sa­tion, or an of­fer of sup­port may help save a life,” Gue­var­ro said.

The TTPS added that it re­mains com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of care, com­pas­sion and sup­port with­in the Ser­vice and across the wider com­mu­ni­ty.

News of Joseph’s death sparked an out­pour­ing of grief on so­cial me­dia, with friends and col­leagues ap­peal­ing for re­spect and sen­si­tiv­i­ty to­ward his fam­i­ly.

One close friend urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­frain from spec­u­la­tion as the fam­i­ly mourns.

A mes­sage cir­cu­lat­ed in a What­sApp group com­pris­ing po­lice of­fi­cers al­so called for prayers and sup­port for Joseph’s rel­a­tives dur­ing what was de­scribed as a pe­ri­od of “unimag­in­able grief and loss.”

In Feb­ru­ary this year, an of­fi­cer jumped out of a win­dow at the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion. He was se­vere­ly in­jured but sur­vived.

Ed­i­tor's note: A pre­vi­ous ver­sion of this sto­ry in­ac­cu­rate­ly re­port­ed that the in­ci­dent took place at the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion. Our apolo­gies for the er­ror.