Officer to be charged with murder of municipal police corporal

Sascha Wil­son

In­struc­tions have been giv­en to charge a col­league of mur­dered San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Cor­po­ral Anusha Ever­s­ley in con­nec­tion with her killing and the theft of a large quan­ti­ty of firearms and am­mu­ni­tion.

The 28-year-old Clax­ton Bay con­sta­ble is fac­ing charges of mur­der, rob­bery with vi­o­lence, traf­fick­ing in firearms and pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion.

Hours ago, Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard, SC, in­struct­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tors to lay the charges dur­ing a meet­ing with se­nior homi­cide of­fi­cers and the le­gal of­fi­cer of the Homi­cide Bu­reau, Re­gion Three.

The ac­cused of­fi­cer, who was ar­rest­ed on Sun­day, hours af­ter the killing, is be­ing held at the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion. Nine oth­er sus­pects, aged be­tween 16 and 33, are al­so in cus­tody.

A po­lice source said more than 120 firearms were stolen. So far, the TTPS has re­cov­ered 43 firearms and over 900 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion.

An au­top­sy re­vealed that Ever­s­ley was stran­gled, beat­en and stabbed, and suf­fered sharp force trau­mat­ic in­juries, in­clud­ing stab and chop wounds.

Ever­s­ley, 42, was found dead at the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Head­quar­ters on La­dy Hailes Av­enue at 4.40 a.m. on Sun­day, and the weapons were miss­ing from the ar­moury. She was the moth­er of three chil­dren, aged 18, 15 and sev­en, and had more than 19 years of ser­vice.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued to­day, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice said a 28-year-old mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cer is ex­pect­ed to be charged for Ever­s­ley’s mur­der, which oc­curred on Sun­day at the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Sta­tion, King’s Wharf.

The TTPS said the charges fol­low ad­vice re­ceived from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions on Tues­day.

Po­lice said in­ves­ti­ga­tions were co­or­di­nat­ed by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Natasha George, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Richard Smith and Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Sean Dhill­paul of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Re­gion Three.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion was su­per­vised by Su­per­in­ten­dent Per­sad and mem­bers of HBI Re­gion Three, while ASP (Ag) Ma­haraj is the in­ves­ti­ga­tor.

Com­ment­ing on the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Gue­var­ro said, “The swift and metic­u­lous work of our in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­flects the stan­dard of pro­fes­sion­al­ism the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice de­mands of it­self.

Their de­ci­sive ac­tion brings us clos­er to jus­tice for the fam­i­ly and col­leagues of Act­ing Cor­po­ral of Po­lice Ever­s­ley, and for a na­tion trau­ma­tized by this deeply trou­bling act of be­tray­al. The lure of greed and quick mon­ey can nev­er jus­ti­fy the be­tray­al of pub­lic trust.

Whether you serve as Es­tate Po­lice, Tran­sit Po­lice, Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice or Reg­u­lar Po­lice, our oath binds us to a high­er du­ty. For those who choose cor­rup­tion and crim­i­nal­i­ty, we will leave no stone un­turned to re­move you from among the of­fi­cers who risk their lives dai­ly to pro­tect our cit­i­zens, and place you in­stead, among those who en­joy state pro­vid­ed ac­com­mo­da­tion with re­in­forced bur­glar proof­ing and 24 hour se­cu­ri­ty. The TTPS re­mains res­olute in de­fend­ing the in­tegri­ty of the badge.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.