There have been no arrests in the New Year’s Eve assassination of 43-year-old special prosecutor Randall Hector.
Hector's murder brought an end to the bloodiest year in the country's history, with the police citing an official murder toll of 624.
The previous highest murder toll was 605 in 2022.
Hector, who once served as the legal adviser to the Strategic Services Agency, was gunned down outside a church on Stanmore Avenue, Port of Spain.
He had also worked as a special prosecutor with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
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He had just delivered a sermon at the Stanmore Avenue Seventh-Day Adventist Church and was walking to the car with his wife and children when a Nissan B-15 car and a black SUV pulled up and two gunmen got out and shot him several times before escaping.
Hector collapsed on the pavement and church members took him to to hospital, where he died.
Hector’s family members arrived at the Forensic Science Centre on January 2 in a heavily-tinted SUV with a police escort. They were met in the public carpark by staff at the centre who directed them to a private carpark at the back of the compound.
His body was identified by two people, including his widow, before the autopsy was done.
Sources at the centre said Hector’s body bore multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.
Police believe his murder was gang-related, as he had once been retained by the state to prosecute an alleged gang leader.
The suspect faced gun possession charges in January 2024, but won the case on the basis of lack of evidence. The suspect was arrested again last week during the early hours of the state of emergency (SoE) implemented on December 30.
The arrest came after a shooting outside the Besson Street Police Station, Port of Spain, on December 28, when one man was killed. That incident is believed to have sparked a feud between warring gangs in East Port of Spain and Laventille.
Police believe the subsequent murder of five men in Prizgar Lands, Laventille on December 29 – which played a role in triggering the SoE – is linked to the shooting.
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At a media conference on December 30 to discuss the SoE, acting Attorney General Stuart Young and Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds said information reaching police was that there was an imminent threat of gang-related reprisals stemming from the two incidents.
In an unrelated case, a relative of Keegan Barbour, the country’s first murder victim for
2025, has suggested he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the SoE to deter criminals.
Speaking to the media after Barbour’s autopsy at the centre on January 2, the relative initially said the family had little to say to the media.
However, asked his thoughts on the SoE and if it was working, the man said, “That is a question you have to ask (Prime Minister) Rowley and them. Ask him and Hinds. Because I ent seeing no change. People still dying.”
