Solemn send-off for Anuska

Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

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With rel­a­tives, col­leagues and friends pay­ing trib­ute at her fu­ner­al ser­vice yes­ter­day, a se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer said slain of­fi­cer Anus­ka Ever­s­ley served with courage and ho­n­our, con­demn­ing her mur­der as “an evil act.”

T&T Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice (TTMPS) Se­nior Supt Wayne Mo­hammed was among those at­tend­ing the ser­vice at Faith Cen­tre in San Fer­nan­do.

Ever­s­ley, a TTMPS act­ing cor­po­ral, was mur­dered while on du­ty at the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Sta­tion on April 19, where a large quan­ti­ty of firearms and am­mu­ni­tion were al­so stolen.

De­liv­er­ing a trib­ute on be­half of the TTMPS, Mo­hammed said Ever­s­ley joined the ser­vice in Ju­ly 2008 and served at the Port-of-Spain City Po­lice, the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­istry’s Guard Unit and most re­cent­ly, at the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice. Not­ing that she was ap­point­ed to act as a po­lice cor­po­ral in 2019, he said she car­ried out those re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with pride and dili­gence.

He said, “Those who worked along­side Anus­ka knew her not on­ly as a ca­pa­ble of­fi­cer but as a per­son of warmth and sin­cer­i­ty. She cul­ti­vat­ed strong, last­ing re­la­tion­ships with her col­leagues — re­la­tion­ships built on trust, ca­ma­raderie, and mu­tu­al re­spect,” he said.

Mo­hammed not­ed that her pass­ing un­der such trag­ic and vi­o­lent cir­cum­stances has pro­found­ly af­fect­ed the ser­vice and wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

“We, the mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice, con­demn this evil act, which stands in stark con­trast to the val­ues of de­cen­cy and re­spect for hu­man life. But even in our grief and out­rage, we must not lose sight of who Anus­ka was and what she rep­re­sent­ed.

“Act­ing Woman Po­lice Cor­po­ral Anus­ka Ever­s­ley served with ho­n­our, lived with pur­pose, and made the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice in the ex­e­cu­tion of her du­ty,” Mo­hammed said, not­ing her sac­ri­fice was a solemn re­minder of the risks borne dai­ly by po­lice of­fi­cers.

To her loved ones, in­clud­ing her hus­band and three chil­dren, ages six, 13 and 18, he as­sured that they have the sup­port of the TTMPS.

He en­cour­aged her col­leagues to “car­ry for­ward her lega­cy in the man­ner we serve, the pro­fes­sion­al­ism we up­hold, and the uni­ty we main­tain as a ser­vice.”

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris said over the years he had had many in­ter­ac­tions with Ever­s­ley, and he took is­sue with com­ments by so­cial me­dia users who want to be “the judge and ju­ror,” with no re­gard for her fam­i­ly. Not­ing the de­cline in fam­i­ly val­ues, he said, “We can­not leave our back door open any­more. You can’t trust your own co-work­er.”

De­clar­ing that he stands on the prin­ci­ples of truth, jus­tice and all that is good, he said, “I vow on this day go­ing for­ward to as­sist the po­lice in every re­gard for this mat­ter to come to an am­i­ca­ble end.”

Par­ris al­so called for re­spon­si­ble jour­nal­ism.

“I want the press to car­ry that on so­cial me­dia. I un­der­stand the press has its job to do, but there are some who are not qual­i­fied in jour­nal­ism and they need to stop it,” he said.

Try­ing to con­tain his emo­tion, Ever­s­ley’s broth­er, Johnathon Ever­s­ley, said his sis­ter, fond­ly called Nuskie, lived a life full of en­er­gy and love.

De­scrib­ing her as kind, af­fa­ble and hard­work­ing, he said she was a ded­i­cat­ed moth­er and loy­al friend.

“If you knew Nuskie, you knew she was the life of par­ty. There was al­ways laugh­ter around her...but at the same time, she was no non­sense per­son. She be­lieved in what need­ed to be done and do­ing it right.”

Johnathon said his sis­ter was al­ways will­ing to help oth­ers and had a fear­less spir­it. Al­though they feel the weight of her ab­sence deeply, he said she would nev­er be for­got­ten.

One of her batch­mates, Con­sta­ble Car­ol Fi­garo, re­called that she last saw her two days be­fore she was killed. She said Ever­s­ley nev­er held grudges and would give “her last dol­lar” to help some­one else. Not­ing that as col­leagues, they would of­ten care for each oth­er’s chil­dren at work, she pledged to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing Ever­s­ley’s chil­dren.

“To the fam­i­ly of the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice, we have to learn to be our broth­er’s keep­er,” she added.

Bish­op Michael Brown, who of­fi­ci­at­ed the ser­vice, said no act of vi­o­lence could si­lence the love she gave and the joy she shared. Say­ing Ever­s­ley stood with in­tegri­ty, he called for peace and love in the na­tion.

“It is a time when we have to val­ue one an­oth­er be­cause to­day, we in a so­ci­ety where he choos­es dark­ness rather than light. Let us choose light over dark­ness.”

Dur­ing the ser­vice, ACP Wayne Mys­tar pre­sent­ed Ever­s­ley’s hus­band, Ster­ling Gon­za­les, with a framed pho­to of Ever­s­ley and the TTMPS flag.

Mys­tar, Mo­hammed and the may­or lat­er joined the pro­ces­sion from the church at Princes of Wales Street to the J.E Guide Fu­ner­al Home and Cre­ma­to­ri­um along Cof­fee Street. Col­leagues, fam­i­ly and friends sang hymns and held hands. This was fol­lowed by a pri­vate view­ing and cre­ma­tion.

For­mer TTMPS ACP Sur­ren­dra Sagram­s­ingh, who was sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave pend­ing the out­come of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, was al­so present, as well as his daugh­ter, for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment sen­a­tor Renu­ka Sagram­s­ingh and min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell.

Hours ear­li­er, Ever­s­ley’s col­league, Ji­van Coop­er, 28, Kwame Arnold, 20, and Nicholas “Nico” Ram­dass, 24, both of Lodge Road, Clax­ton Bay, were re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody af­ter ap­pear­ing in court charged with four of­fences, in­clud­ing her mur­der.

Five po­lice of­fi­cers al­so re­main on sus­pen­sion fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent.