No spent shells were recovered by Crime Scene Investigators regarding the Smith and Wesson pistol police said was found in the car which left three friends dead at the hands of GEB officers on Saturday 2nd July, 2022.
• Earlier this week, Acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob there is video evidence which shows that the police killings of the three friends may have been justified.
• The Commissioner said the TTPS will not be releasing the video evidence.
• But the video evidence he apparently made reference too was the police chase of the white Toyota Aqua motorcar.
• In a press statement emailed to selective media houses on Wednesday 6th July 2022, the TTPS said at the last paragraph that, “A Smith and Wesson pistol was also reportedly found in the vehicle.”
• However, a police source informed us that during the processing of the crime scene at the corner of Chacon Street and Independence Square, the only spent shells collected by Crime Scene Investigators were from the weapons fired by the police officers which are engraved “TTPS”.
According to the police source, the officers made “a colossal mistake and the said white Toyota Aqua motor was not reported as a stolen vehicle.”
The police statement on Wednesday said, “Officers of the Guard and Emergency Branch who also joined the pursuit allegedly came under fire from the occupants of the vehicle and in keeping with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s Use of Force Policy returned fire in the direction of the occupants.”
17-year-old Isaiah Roberts of Sandy Trace, St. Barb’s, Laventille; 17-year-old Leonardo Brandon Williams of Beetham Gardens, Port of Spain; and 21-year-old Fabian Richards of Sandy Trace, St. Barb’s, Laventille, were killed by the officers. They all died at the scene.
Isaiah Roberts was the front seat passenger, Fabien Richards sat next to Leonardo Williams and were both directly within the officers’ line of fire.
15-year-old Malachi Glenn was also shot. Two other occupants of the car were not injured and they were all released from police custody days later.
Autopsy results on the trio earlier this week revealed they were shot behind their heads, backs, neck and buttocks.
Also, the source informed us that the two police SUVs did not sustain gunshot damage during the shooting. One of the vehicles sustained damages after it “appeared to have rammed the Toyota Aqua motorcar from behind,” A claim made by the survivors.
But the police statement did not say how the Toyota Aqua crashed into the wall of Republic Bank.
The police said GEB officers “came under fire from the occupants of the vehicle”. Is it that we are to believe the occupants of the vehicle passed around the gun to each other to shoot at the police? Remember, one pistol was claimed to have been found in the car by police and their statement was issued days after the incident.
Another question that must be asked is, if an occupant of the car did have the Smith and Wesson pistol and fired shots at the officers (who obviously would be justified to return fire), how come the CSI personnel never retrieved any spent shells from that would have been ejected from this Smith and Wesson pistol officers claimed they found in the car?
Remember, the processing the scene took more than 7 hours?
Also, has the Smith and Wesson pistol been taken to the Forensic Sciences Centre to determine if it was recently fired? That is a question the police can get answered within hours from the ballistic experts at the FSC.
NB: All pistols eject spent shells (bullet casings). Some revolvers do likewise but others retain the casings in the weapon’s barrel.
