Senior Reporter
An autopsy performed on the body of acting Cpl Anusha Eversley, who was found dead in the San Fernando Municipal Police Station on Sunday, has found that she was strangled and also suffered blunt and sharp force traumatic injuries (stab and chop wounds).
This was revealed by Commissioner of Police (CoP) Allister Guevarro yesterday, as he corrected an earlier report that she may have been shot in the neck.
Speaking during a media briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, Guevarro gave away very little else, as he said the investigation into Eversley’s murder and the theft of a cache of arms and ammunition from the station was continuing apace.
He confirmed that the T&T Police Service (TTPS) had so far recovered a total of 38 firearms and 929 rounds of assorted ammunition stolen by the perpetrators. This followed two separate seizures in south Trinidad yesterday.
The recovered weapons included one MPX submachine gun; one shotgun; one revolver and 35 pistols. In addition, 929 rounds of ammunition, comprising 900 rounds of 9mm; ten rounds of .38 calibre and ten shotgun cartridges were recovered.
Eversley, 42, was discovered dead at the Municipal Police Headquarters, Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando, around 4.40 am on Sunday. She was a mother of three children, aged 18, 15 and seven, and had over 19 years of service.
It was alleged that approximately 62 guns and 4,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from the station’s armoury.
Asked yesterday just how many firearms and ammunition were stolen during the heist, Guevarro said, “At this point in time, unfortunately, I’ll be unable to say as we are still continuing the audit. I have tasked the officers of the police armoury to do that audit and it should be completed in a day or two.”
Saying six men between the ages of 16-33 have so far been detained in connection with the ongoing investigation, Guevarro said, “As enquiries progress, further changes in persons in custody are expected. Further interviews with municipal police colleagues of the deceased officer are ongoing as investigators seek to determine any and all possibilities of accomplices.”
The TTPS, in a release yesterday, confirmed the six detainees included two municipal police officers, two female civilians and two male civilians. Two women and one man detained on Sunday have since been released.
Maintaining that Sunday’s incident was a “shocking moment” for the nation, Guevarro insisted, “The heist of several weapons and ammunition remains an extreme concern to the TTPS.”
Acknowledging this situation was unprecedented, the CoP said in an attempt to prevent such situations from recurring, the TTPS was pursuing several interventions aimed at not only the San Fernando Municipal Police but across the wider municipal service.
“These measures will seek to address existing gaps and implement significant changes to safeguard against reoccurrences of this nature. Immediate reforms are being introduced to strengthen firearm storage and ensure strict adherence to relevant policies and standing orders,” he said.
Pressed for updates on the number of officers who were in the station at the time of the attack on Eversley and whether she had been in state of undress when found, Guevarro said three people, including the deceased officer, were present.
“We are still looking at video evidence that is coming to hand to determine whether or not a fourth person was present or not,” he said.
Maintaining his initial conviction about the incident, Guevarro said, “I maintain that it was not a targeted attack against law enforcement and that the situation, as we currently understand, is a situation that has never occurred before in Trinidad. Hopefully, by our interventions and the tactics and strategies we are putting in place, it will not occur again.”
The CoP also came in for blows from members of the public, who claimed his description of the incident on Sunday was insensitive, after he referred to it as merely a “one-off situation.”
Responding to this yesterday, Guevarro apologised to anyone he may have angered.
He said, “I apologise to the members of the public if anyone felt that it was insensitive. I definitely believed that this situation is one that has never occurred, as I mentioned in the past, and because of the strategies and tactics that we’ll be inputting in future, we hope that this will never occur again. So on that basis, I made the statement of being a one-off situation.”
