CoP confirms WPC Eversley died by strangulation, not a gunshot

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has con­firmed that the death of WPC Anusha Ever­s­ley was caused by stran­gu­la­tion, as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the case and the theft of firearms.

CoP Gue­var­ro gave the up­date on Mon­day af­ter­noon.

“Cor­po­ral Ever­s­ley was in­deed a shock­ing mo­ment to the na­tion, and the heist of sev­er­al weapons and am­mu­ni­tion—that is an ex­treme con­cern to the TTPS,” the CoP said. “So, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice can con­firm at this point in time that the au­top­sy on Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Of­fi­cer Cor­po­ral Anusha Ever­s­ley was com­plet­ed to­day. The cause of death has been de­ter­mined as stran­gu­la­tion, ac­com­pa­nied by blunt force and sharp force trau­mat­ic in­juries to the body.”

He said what was ini­tial­ly sus­pect­ed to be a gun­shot wound has now been clar­i­fied fol­low­ing the foren­sic pathol­o­gist’s find­ings.

“The in­ves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues apace and at present six men be­tween the ages of 16 and 33 are in cus­tody. Two women and one male de­tainee who were held yes­ter­day have since been re­leased as in­quiries progress. Fur­ther changes in per­sons in cus­tody are ex­pect­ed.”

CoP Gue­var­ro al­so ad­dressed the theft of firearms from the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Head­quar­ters.

“In re­la­tion to the theft of arms and am­mu­ni­tion from the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Head­quar­ters, the TTPS has thus far suc­cess­ful­ly re­cov­ered 38 firearms—one MPX sub­ma­chine gun, one shot­gun, one re­volver and 35 pis­tols. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, 929 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion have been re­trieved com­pris­ing 909 mil­lime­tre, 10 rounds of 0.38 cal­i­bre and 10 shot­gun car­tridges.”

He said the TTPS is pur­su­ing in­ter­ven­tions both at the mu­nic­i­pal lev­el and across the wider Po­lice Ser­vice.

“These mea­sures will seek to ad­dress ex­ist­ing gaps and im­ple­ment sig­nif­i­cant changes to safe­guard against re­oc­cur­rences of this na­ture. Im­me­di­ate re­forms are be­ing in­tro­duced to strength­en firearm stor­age and en­sure strict ad­her­ence to rel­e­vant poli­cies and stand­ing or­ders.”

He added that in­ves­ti­ga­tors are con­tin­u­ing in­ter­views with mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers.

“Fur­ther in­ter­views with mu­nic­i­pal po­lice col­leagues of the de­ceased of­fi­cer are on­go­ing as in­ves­ti­ga­tors seek to de­ter­mine any and all pos­si­bil­i­ties of ac­com­plices.”

CoP Gue­var­ro as­sured that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains a pri­or­i­ty.

“The pub­lic is as­sured that this in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains top pri­or­i­ty and up­dates will be pro­vid­ed as new in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able.”