Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams has rejected criticism of the police’s response to a robbery at a bar in Barrackpore last Friday, which left one rookie policeman nursing gunshot wounds in hospital.
Contacted yesterday, after CCTV footage of the exchange between police and three armed robbers at Vietnam Bar was repeatedly aired on the popular CrimeWatch programme on CNC3 on Monday, Williams refused to accept public criticism over the police’s handling of the situation, which resulted in PC Kashyap Lochan being shot in his stomach and the suspects escaping.
The video drew wide public criticism after it was also posted on the Crime Watch Facebook page and was reposted by several users of the social media site. Many of them complained about the apparent poor response to the incident by the police, including the fact that they seemed to lack the proper training in how to deal with such a situation.
Asked yesterday to explain why the police were not wearing bullet-proof vests when they responded to the scene, Williams claimed that even with protective equipment the outcome would have been the same. “It only protects the chest area. Even if he had put on a bulletproof vest the injury would have still fallen below the protected area,” Williams said. A defensive Williams also questioned the validity of the criticism.
“You are missing the point. What happened here is police responded to the needs of citizens and a criminal was brazen enough to shoot deliberately at the police,” he said. Williams also rejected suggestions that more experienced police should have been ordered to respond to the robbery than Lochan, who had entered the T&T Police Service seven months ago.
“Criminals do not pick and choose based on who is old, young or more experienced,” Williams said.
cop’s ultimatum
The issue of all police wearing bulletproof vests while on duty has cropped up several times in the past, most recently last year after another police constable, Rondell Phillip, was injured while responding to a robbery in St Augustine on November 3. In the aftermath, Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams immediately issued an inter-department directive making the use of the life-saving vest mandatory.
“We continue to remind officers that bulletproof vests are protective gear not to penalise, but to protect them. So I will continue to encourage them to use them when on duty, as we never know when a situation will occur when you can encounter a fire fight in the line of your duties. “To that end, I have given a directive to all divisional commanders that all officers who will be operating on the field should wear their vests. I see it as important that all officers, whilst on duty, be fully prepared and protected,” he said.
heavy gunfire
According to reports, around 10.30 pm last Friday, Lochan, WPC Cholai and PC Sookoo, of the Barrackpore Police Station, were on patrol when they responded to a report of a disturbance at the Vietnam Bar at New Colonial Road, Barrackpore. They stopped in front of the bar unaware that a robbery was in progress. But inside the bar’s gaming room, the bandits, two of whom were masked, saw when the police arrived on CCTV cameras and waited for them to enter.
When Lochan approached the door to the gaming room, police said, he was greeted by gunfire. Lochan was shot in the abdomen and left leg but he and his colleagues returned fire and he managed to scramble back to their vehicle outside.
The video, however, showed that Ramlochan was alone as he kicked in the door to the bar and was greeted by gunfire. After he was shot he retreated into the street and his colleagues were also forced to take cover as the bandits fired at them. The police van and two other vehicles were shot up during the attack. The bandits then ran to the back of the building and escaped with over $35,000 in cash, as well as cellphones, jewelery and other valuables they stole from the bar’s patrons.