Defence Ministry activates response after officer killed

The Min­istry of De­fence has ac­ti­vat­ed a na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty re­sponse fol­low­ing the death of a mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cer at­tached to the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Sta­tion.

In a me­dia re­lease, the min­istry said the of­fi­cer was killed in the line of du­ty ear­li­er in the day.

Min­is­ter of De­fence and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Wayne Sturge ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, col­leagues and mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice.

The min­istry said the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force has moved to an el­e­vat­ed op­er­a­tional pos­ture and is sup­port­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice and oth­er agen­cies.

It said in­tel­li­gence as­sets have been en­gaged and mon­i­tor­ing is on­go­ing, with con­tin­gency sup­port in place to ad­dress threats.

The min­istry said it is co­or­di­nat­ing ef­forts with Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and oth­er of­fi­cials with­in the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty struc­ture to en­sure a re­sponse.

It said re­sources are be­ing used to se­cure lo­ca­tions and sup­port the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the in­ci­dent.

The min­istry urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­main calm and to avoid spec­u­la­tion as au­thor­i­ties con­tin­ue their work.

It said fur­ther up­dates will be is­sued by rel­e­vant agen­cies as in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able.

The min­istry said the re­sponse in­volves co­or­di­na­tion among agen­cies and the use of avail­able re­sources to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion.