(Trinidad Express) While many may believe that 2014 was a record year in terms of the number of people killed following altercations with members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS)—with 46 dead following confrontations with officers—it actually was not.
The record year for police killings was 2010.
That year, 49 people were killed by police following varying interactions with the law.
However, the statistic for last year is still the second highest number of reported police killings since 2000.
This statistic is actually tied with the number of people killed by police in 2009.
In 2014 alone, over 500 illegal firearms were seized and removed from the streets of this country following police exercises; an estimated 75 per cent of the 404 murders reported for the year were committed via the use of firearms.
That said, the fact that investigations into several of these incidents are taking such a long time to be completed does not bolster public confidence in the police service either.
Most of the reports in which statements from the police and alleged eyewitnesses vary, are still under investigation, or if they have been completed, the information has yet to be properly disclosed to the public.
Joel Apparicio
And while the loss of any life is a tragic thing, the one incident which stood out this year among so many was the death of Joel Apparicio.
It is a unique case because if the events of witnesses to the incident are to be believed, he was killed by a police officer while making his way to the San Juan Police Station for assistance.
Apparicio, 31, was killed on May 22, by a Special Reserve Police officer (SRP) in San Juan while running along Real Street toward the Police Station, to make a report.
Several persons claimed to have witnessed the police officer—who was last attached to the Witness Protection Unit of the Homicide Bureau and worked at a sub-station in San Juan—drive alongside Apparicio in a black Nissan X-trail motor-vehicle, roll down his window, and shoot the 31-year-old man apparently without warning as he was still running.
Apparicio died on the scene, and the officer who reportedly killed him remained parked in the car as a crowd, which included the 31-year-old’s mother Pastor Wendy-Ann Huggins, gathered around his lifeless body.
Reporters who were in the area at the time arrived on the scene mere minutes after the shooting took place and witnessed a grieving Huggins go through her son’s clothing and belongings in full view of the officer who killed him and the crowd who gathered, in an attempt to demonstrate that her son had not stolen anything and had nothing illegal on him. There were no firearms, ammunition, or narcotics in his possession.
Yet, the pastor as well as other persons in the crowd repeatedly noted instead of arresting and apprehending the young man for whatever offence it was perceived he may have committed, in the heat of that moment, the SRP decided to shoot the fleeing man.
The police reports on this incident were simply that the SRP witnessed Apparicio running from a group of men who were alleging that he had just committed a crime, and that the 31-year-old was shot in an attempt by the officer to detain him.
But an autopsy performed at the Forensic Science Centre in St James by pathologist Dr Hughvon Des Vignes, did reveal that Apparicio was killed by a single bullet. The bullet entered the left side of his chest, perforating several vital organs, before exiting on the right side of his chest.
This autopsy report does appear to lend some credibility to the version of events given by Apparicio’s mother.
