NATUC criticises police over Samaroo shooting

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) has ex­pressed deep con­cern over the de­ci­sion by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro not to sus­pend of­fi­cers in­volved in the fa­tal shoot­ing of 31-year-old Joshua Sama­roo dur­ing a high-speed chase in St Au­gus­tine on Jan­u­ary 20. The in­ci­dent al­so left Sama­roo’s com­mon-law wife, Ka­ia Sealy, paral­ysed.

NATUC crit­i­cised the Com­mis­sion­er’s de­ci­sion, not­ing that video footage of the in­ci­dent cir­cu­lat­ing in the pub­lic do­main has raised se­ri­ous ques­tions, in­clud­ing those high­light­ed by the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The union said sus­pen­sion pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion is not a de­c­la­ra­tion of guilt but a safe­guard to pre­serve the in­tegri­ty of in­ves­ti­ga­tions, main­tain pub­lic con­fi­dence, and en­sure jus­tice is both done and seen to be done.

“No in­di­vid­ual, no of­fice, and no in­sti­tu­tion can be above the law,” NATUC said. “The crim­i­nal law of Trinidad and To­ba­go ap­plies equal­ly to civil­ians and law-en­force­ment of­fi­cers alike.”

The union al­so warned that cit­i­zens have the right to live with­out fear of crime or the in­sti­tu­tions meant to pro­tect them, and raised con­cerns about the use of ex­ces­sive force and in­tim­i­da­tion by po­lice. NATUC re­ject­ed pub­lic as­ser­tions of an al­leged ex­change of gun­fire in the ab­sence of sup­port­ing video ev­i­dence, say­ing this height­ened the need for an in­de­pen­dent and trans­par­ent in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

NATUC called for the im­me­di­ate sus­pen­sion of the of­fi­cers in­volved, in­de­pen­dent over­sight of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, ad­her­ence to due process, and pub­lic re­as­sur­ance that jus­tice—not im­puni­ty—guides state in­sti­tu­tions.

“Jus­tice must not on­ly be done—it must be seen to be done,” the union said.

Michael An­nisette, NATUC Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, stressed the union’s stance for pro­fes­sion­al, re­strained, and ac­count­able polic­ing, and for the pro­tec­tion of cit­i­zens’ de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights and safe­ty.