PM says murder toll down by 46%

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the mur­der toll has de­clined by ap­prox­i­mate­ly 46 per cent over the past two years, de­spite a re­cent spate of killings, in­clud­ing the mur­ders of two women at a Cou­va spa and at­tor­ney-at-law Tara­dath Singh this week.

In a so­cial me­dia post yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the num­ber of mur­ders had fall­en from 523 as of Oc­to­ber 28, 2024, to 305 in Oc­to­ber 2025 and 280 in Oc­to­ber 2026.

She de­scribed the fig­ures as ev­i­dence of “re­al progress” in the fight against vi­o­lent crime, say­ing her Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment had pri­ori­tised con­fronting vi­o­lent crim­i­nal el­e­ments, strength­en­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and restor­ing pub­lic safe­ty.

“From leg­isla­tive changes to re­sourc­ing and equip­ping our pro­tec­tive ser­vices, we have en­sured that our brave men and women are not out­manned or out­gunned on the streets,” she said.

How­ev­er, she ac­knowl­edged that more work re­mained to be done.

“Every life lost to crime is one too many, and our com­mit­ment must re­main fo­cused on mak­ing our com­mu­ni­ties safer,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so thanked the Min­is­ters of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and De­fence, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices for their con­tin­ued ded­i­ca­tion and sac­ri­fice.

Her state­ment comes amid re­newed con­cern over vi­o­lent crime fol­low­ing the killing of at­tor­ney-at-law Tara­dath Singh, 53, a for­mer po­lice of­fi­cer, who was shot dead in Char­lieville on Tues­day evening.

On Wednes­day morn­ing, Cheryl Dixon, 67, and Kavi­ta De­osaran, 55, the own­er of SO­HO Beau­ty Haven, were shot dead by a masked gun­man in­side the Cou­va busi­ness.

“The work con­tin­ues. The safe­ty of our cit­i­zens re­mains the pri­or­i­ty,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.