Defence Ministry activates national response after officer killed

Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor–News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­[email protected]

A co­or­di­nat­ed na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty re­sponse has been ac­ti­vat­ed fol­low­ing the killing of a mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cer at­tached to the San Fer­nan­do Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Sta­tion, with mul­ti­ple agen­cies now en­gaged in on­go­ing se­cu­ri­ty and in­ves­tiga­tive op­er­a­tions.

The Min­istry of De­fence said the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) has been placed on an el­e­vat­ed op­er­a­tional pos­ture and is sup­port­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice and oth­er agen­cies as part of the re­sponse.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the De­fence Min­istry said mul­ti­ple agen­cies with­in the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty frame­work have been ac­ti­vat­ed.

It said in­tel­li­gence as­sets have been en­gaged and mon­i­tor­ing is on­go­ing, with con­tin­gency sup­port in place to ad­dress any emerg­ing threats.

The min­istry added that it is co­or­di­nat­ing ef­forts with Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and oth­er of­fi­cials with­in the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty struc­ture to en­sure an ap­pro­pri­ate re­sponse.

Ac­cord­ing to the state­ment, re­sources are be­ing de­ployed to se­cure lo­ca­tions and sup­port in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the killing.

The min­istry urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­main calm and avoid spec­u­la­tion as au­thor­i­ties con­tin­ue their work.

It said fur­ther up­dates will be is­sued by rel­e­vant agen­cies as in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able.

The Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment al­so is­sued a state­ment yes­ter­day con­firm­ing that the of­fi­cer was on ac­tive du­ty at the time of the in­ci­dent.

It said de­tails sur­round­ing the cir­cum­stances re­main un­clear as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue.

Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Khadi­jah Ameen said she is await­ing a full re­port from the As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice be­fore mak­ing fur­ther pub­lic com­ment.

Ameen and Min­is­ter of De­fence Wayne Sturge al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, col­leagues and mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice.