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Three men have been killed by police in Sangre Grande in separate incidents this week, with the latest incident occurring on Thursday night. But Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro says these incidents have been happening because police have stepped up operations. Police said, around 7 p.m., they attempted to intercept a Toyota Hilux being driven by Mustapha Gulab along Southern Main Road in Cunapo. They said he opened fire on them with an assault rifle while driving. Police said they fired back and struck him several times and he eventually came to a stop at Coalmine Bridge. He was taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital where he died while receiving treatment. The rifle was recovered. On Sunday evening, two other men, Shyien “Nookie” Trancoso, 25, and Enrique Garcia, 24, who was a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, were shot and killed by police amid reports that they were planning to rob a bar in Sangre Grande. As of last night, there were 58 police-related killings for the year so far. There were 54 police-involved killings last year. Speaking at Police Administration Building, Port of Spain, yesterday Guevarro said investigations into both incidents were on-going. Referring to the shootings of Trancoso and Garcia, he said, “I am certain that the media would have seen some videos surfaced Thursday online, depicting the particular victims from that shooting incident with the police with a very high-powered rifle.” He continued: “With regard to the shooting from last evening (Gulab)...that one, the gentleman in question was the main suspect in three of the homicides from the Valencia district.” He said that for several days investigators had been trying to find him and when they eventually did on Thursday night he engaged the police. “Just like you, we are seeing the videos and the CCTV camera footage from the bars and other things where they run in shooting indiscriminately,” said the Commissioner. “So what do you think that they would do when they encounter the police where they know the police have guns and the police are trained...They ain’t going and play dolly house cook or marble pitch. They will engage the police and when they engage the police, we will respond and I stand 100% behind my officers,” he said. Guevarro also explained that, from their statistics, it appeared that only a small number of criminals wanted to engage the police as the majority of gun seizures were mostly peaceful. “We have recovered over 150 firearms and only less than 15 of these firearms resulted in some sort of negative interaction that had shooting with or at the police involved,” he said. He added that 85% of people who had illegal guns seized from them were alive and in jail while only 15% engaged the police. “So it’s a minority of the criminals who still decide that they want to engage with the police,” he said. He added that he felt sure that the public had been feeling “an increase in police engagement” “I’m sure you’re seeing it every single day...more police presence on the road and they (criminals) find it more difficult to move around and when they have to engage with my officers, that is when it becomes fatal,” he said.
