CoP honours fallen officer at 1990 Coup commemoration

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro paid trib­ute to slain po­lice of­fi­cer PC Solomon Mc Leod on Sun­day dur­ing a wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny mark­ing the 36th an­niver­sary of the 1990 At­tempt­ed Coup.

The cer­e­mo­ny was held at the In­di­an Walk Ceme­tery in Princes Town, where Mc Leod is buried, and formed part of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice's ob­ser­vance of the an­niver­sary.

Gue­var­ro laid a wreath at the of­fi­cer's gravesite in ho­n­our of Mc Leod, who lost his life dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup while serv­ing in de­fence of the coun­try's de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions.

The solemn cer­e­mo­ny was at­tend­ed by As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Sood­een, Woman Su­per­in­ten­dent Bridglal, of­fi­cers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion and mem­bers of the Po­lice Band. Fam­i­ly mem­bers of Mc Leod and res­i­dents of the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty al­so at­tend­ed to pay their re­spects.

Re­flect­ing on the sig­nif­i­cance of the oc­ca­sion, Gue­var­ro said the sac­ri­fices made by of­fi­cers who died in the line of du­ty dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup would not be for­got­ten.

“We will nev­er for­get those who made the ul­ti­mate sac­ri­fice in the de­fence of our democ­ra­cy and free­doms,” the Com­mis­sion­er said.

The an­nu­al ob­ser­vance ho­n­ours the lives lost dur­ing the events of Ju­ly 27, 1990, when an at­tempt­ed coup plunged the coun­try in­to six days of un­rest. The an­niver­sary is marked each year with cer­e­monies recog­nis­ing the courage and sac­ri­fice of those who de­fend­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go's de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions.