(Trinidad Guardian) Relatives of Brian Smith, whose body was fished out from sea on Sunday morning, last night burnt tyres and caused major traffic gridlock along the Western Main Road as they claimed the 30-year-old was killed by regiment officers and called for justice.
The protest began shortly after family members viewed a segment of CNC3’s Crime Watch, where host Ian Alleyne highlighted Smith’s death and promised “to get to the bottom of the death.”
Around 7.15 pm, police attached to the Carenage station had managed to douse the burning tyres and other rubble added before they arrived but their presence seemed to ignite the anger in the relatives.
The officers told the relatives that their method of seeking justice was wrong and they could not get anything right by going about it the wrong way.
But relatives said since the incident had taken place on Friday, police had not done a proper investigation.
According to relatives, Smith was drinking with regiment officers attached to the Engineer Battalion last Friday when they got into an argument over an illegal electrical connection.
Relatives said the soldiers beat Smith with a shovel and after he complained to neighbours, he was hit in the head and thrown into the sea. His body was seen floating around 7 am on Sunday by prison officers on their way to work at Carrera Prison.
Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, earlier yesterday, Smith’s mother, Gloria, said her son was a great swimmer so she could not believe any story that suggested he had drowned as his autopsy report claimed.
“In my book them murder my son and that is what I think. They murder my son. That is what I know I believe, I have no proof but that is what I know,” a grieving Smith told the T&T Guardian.
“He originally from Penal Rock Road, Moruga, and he came to give blood for me and he stay and breeze out a little bit but he was to go back. Is best he did so because look at what happened. He said he was to go home on December 1.
“A man say he saw and he tell me plain that he see the soldiers hit my son a shovel in the face and throw him in the sea. Nobody was around. All of them (soldiers) was wet and leave from the back and come in front and say he drowning and all of them could swim and none of them help him.”
When the T&T Guardian visited the area yesterday afternoon, soldiers were seen drinking coconut water and a clear liquid from a bottle. The men were sipping on the drink and when told of the report laughed.
Two men who were partaking of the beverages told the T&T Guardian that the claims by the relatives were unfounded. One man said it was the work of something supernatural that led to Smith’s death, while another swore none of the regiment officers touched Smith other than pushing him away after he became verbally abusive.
“I didn’t see anybody hit him. I left and I saw him walking out to the sea. I heard he went to take a sea bath but them soldiers ain’t have nothing to do with that,” the man said.
“I didn’t see them fellas hit him. I see the soldiers ask him to leave because he was cursing. They must be push him but not no shovel or nothing. I didn’t see them hit him. After I leave I hear he drowned.”
At the protest last night, Smith’s sister, Imani Kwanza, accused the regiment of buying the silence of those around with food, hampers and cash. She added that only after they burnt tyres did officers from the Carenage station come to speak with the family. She claimed the soldiers got her brother drunk and killed him.
When contacted last evening, however, Corporate Communications officer of the T&T Defence Force, Major Al Alexander, said the allegations were “incredible” and had sullied the name of officers who were in the area assisting with the repairs of a home after a low-flying helicopter assigned to the T&T Air Guard had destroyed part of it.
