The mother of teenager Recardo Mohammed has raised fresh questions over the circumstances surrounding her son’s death, as she claims the Special Reserve Policeman (SRP) whose gun fatally wounded the 17-year-old was well acquainted with her family. Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, exactly two weeks after her son died after being shot during a party at the Military Museum in Chaguaramas, Telisha Charles said her family was still at a loss as to the cause of the shooting.
However, she said the family does not believe the officer’s prior interaction with them was a mere coincidence. “It so hard to believe. I want to see him (name withheld) to ask him what really went on, cause he know all my children,” Charles said. She said she and her four children first met the SRP several years ago at a fast food outlet at the Valley Harps Steel Orchestra’s Morne Coco Road, Petit Valley panyard.
The T&T Guardian understands that the SRP was involved in an altercation with Mohammed several months ago. Saying that the investigation into her son’s death should be completed quickly to bring closure to her family, Charles said she hoped there would be no cover-up by police investigators. Charles also questioned why the SRP remains on active duty while the investigation is ongoing.
Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne made a similar call last week. “It is madness. What stopping him from doing it again?” Charles said. In a newspaper interview on Saturday, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams promised a transparent and speedy investigation, as he said he could only make a decision on the SRP after he receives an interim report from investigators.
Williams does not have to authority to suspend the SRP as is the case with normal police, but can inform him that his services are not required for a period. “It will not just be treated as a matter of somebody being killed by a police gun, (but) it is being treated with the highest level of consideration,” Williams said. Shortly before 6 am on September 28, Mohammed, a labourer from Cuthbert Road, Diego Martin, was shot in his back while liming with friends at the party.
He was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Immediately after the incident, police claimed that Mohammed was accidentally wounded when the SRP’s gun discharged as he was jostling with another partygoer he was attempting to arrest for smoking marijuana. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Harold Phillip is leading the team of detectives mandated to investigate the incident.