(Trinidad Express) Two teenagers were shot dead by police at a guest house apartment in Tobago and a father of one of those killed is demanding answers.
Dead is Hakeem Anderson, 17, of Golden Lane, Tobago, and a former student of Mason Hall Secondary, and Razeen Quashie, 19, also of Golden Lane.
Police reports stated that at around 6.08 p.m. on Monday, a party of officers led by Sgt Thomas, officers from the Intelligence team and Tobago Divisional CID based at the Shirvan Road Police Station, went to Roy’s Island Guest House at Sou Sou Lands, Tobago, based on information received about armed men who were wanted in connection with several shootings on the island.
Police said that on arrival there, the officers approached the apartment and announced their presence. Police reported both Anderson and Quashie were armed and pointed their weapons in the direction of the officers.
Police said Sgt Thomas, acting Corporal Moses and Police Constable O’Neil believed that their lives were in imminent danger and fired in the direction of the two suspects, who were both hit. The officers took the injured men to the Scarborough General Hospital via a motor vehicle and EHS ambulance; both men were declared dead on arrival.
The bodies were then transferred to the Scarborough Mortuary, where an autopsy will determine the cause of deaths.
Police said the officers later found and seized one AR-15 rifle with 29 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition and a revolver with four rounds of .38 ammunition.
Crime scene officers led by Sgt Horsford processed the scene, which was also visited by Acting Senior Superintendent Kirk, Acting ASP Bharath, ASP John and Inspector Bacchus. ASP Bharath is continuing enquiries.
Yesterday Essau Quashie, father of Razeen Quashie, told the Express he wanted answers on the shooting death of his son.
“I want some answers. Up to yesterday, police did not visit me. When I heard my son was shot dead by police, I was baffled. My son was a cool guy; very educated. He used to do IT (information technology) and was previously a student of Scarborough Secondary School,” he said during an interview at his Golden Lane home.
Razeen Quashie’s cousin Azel Taylor said Golden Lane needed more youth programmes:
“The youths of Golden Lane want more. Just like how you (Express) come here—up to now, we have not seen our area representative. And…for the past years gone by, one set of youths getting killed in this village. We want someone in authority to come and say: let us have a meeting with the youths. I never heard Razeen in anything. I never knew him in anything illegal,” Taylor said.
The killings of Anderson and Quashie bring the total police killings for the year to 41.
