Residents of Wallenville, Guaico, are fearful after the shooting death of one of their neighbours at the hands of police. When the Guardian visited the community yesterday, residents were afraid and reluctant to speak. They claim Lloyd Solomon, 32, was liming when police came to the area and began shooting. But police have a different account of how Solomon came to be shot multiple times and died.
According to police reports, Sgt Cornelius Samuel, 41, of the North Eastern Division Task Force, was ambushed by a group of men while in the area searching for arms and ammunition between midnight and 1 am. During a shootout with the men, Samuel was shot in the abdomen and left ankle while Lloyd Solomon, 32, was shot multiple times and died. Police said they recovered a 9 mm pistol following the shooting. They said Solomon had multiple charges relating to arms, ammunition and narcotics.
Samuel is warded at hospital under police guard. Near where Solomon was fatally shot, one female resident who wished not to be identified, recalled what she heard. She said around 11 pm she was attempting to put her one-year-old daughter to sleep when she heard a series of explosions. The expectant mother added that her boyfriend grabbed the child and told her to be quiet.
Some time later she said police came to her door and questioned both her and her boyfriend about the occupants of the house and left. The officers returned later, she said, and arrested her boyfriend, beat him and physically and verbally assaulted her. While speaking, the woman pointed out four bullet holes in her house, which she said were from police. She also pointed to bullet holes in cars on the roadway.
“Listen, me and you is big people, if is a shootout as the police say, how come it have no bullet holes in the windscreen of the car? If a man running and shooting, it will have gunshots in the front of the car, not in the back alone, not so?” she said. The woman said she knew Solomon from the area. She said Solomon ran to the side of her house, where he died after being shot. She said when she went to visit her boyfriend at the Valencia Police Station, his face was swollen from allegedly being beaten by the police.
Solomon’s father, Jason Solomon, also spoke with the Guardian. He described his son as an “easy-going fella who used to keep blocko (street parties) for the people in the area.” “He was in trouble with the police before but for small thing, for lil weed and thing. I want to know what is the reason they come and kill him. That is the question I want them to answer. “What he do for allyuh to kill him? Is police come and shoot him. He was liming and they come and shoot him,” the senior Solomon said.
Solomon added that knowing his son he was shocked when he heard he had been killed by police. He added that up to 2 pm when the T&T Guardian visited the family, no police officer had come to tell him or any other family member what had happened.