8 police officers, among them a sergeant and a corporal, were charged and appeared in court in connection with the Saturday 27th July, 2020 murders of three (3) friends who were shot and killed by police while inside a car in Morvant.
The officers were charged late on Monday and appeared virtually before Port of Spain Senior Magistrate Brian Dabideen to answer the capital offences. Each of the officers was slapped with three (3) counts of murder.
They are:
1. 44-year-old no. 14780 Sgt. Joseph Solomon with 22 years’ service;
2. 55-year-old no. 12336 Cpl. Charles Budri with 34 years’ service;
3. 41-year-old no. 17698 PC Sherwin Baptiste with 19 years’ service;
4. 39-year-old no. 17998 PC Colin Furlonge with 13 years’ service;
5. 39-year-old no. 19283 PC Vaughn St. Cyr with 11 years’ service;
6. 42-year-old no. 8685 PC Jameel Mohammed 9 years’ service;
7. 42-year-old no. 16638 PC Sean Lord with 19 years’ service; and
8. 41-year-old no. 17752 PC Mark Lewis with 13 years’ service
• The accused were all remanded into custody and the matter adjourned to August 16th, 2022.
• On Monday 18th July 2022, the Director of Public Prosecutions advised investigators to charge the officers with allegedly murdering 38-year-old Joel Jacob aka Lion, 46-year-old Noel Diamond and 27-year-old Israel Moses Clinton.
• The killings of the trio took place at Second Caledonia road in Morvant near the Auto Guru compound. It sparked two consecutive days of sporadic protests across the country.