Senior Reporter
A Fyzabad mother is calling for a full probe after her son was killed by a soldier during a joint police/army raid at their home on Wednesday.
“Oh God, they did not have to kill him like that,” Vanessa Maharaj cried yesterday, after Aaron “Kalonji” Anderson, 19, was shot dead during the raid on their Delhi Road, Fyzabad, home.
A blood-smeared trail that ran from the upstairs bathroom, down the stairs, across the yard and into the road remained a reminder for the family of the deadly ordeal that occurred on Wednesday afternoon. The family followed the smear and said it shows how he was dragged out of the house, carelessly and inhumanely, after he was shot.
It was a hard morning for Maharaj, 37.
During the interview, she broke down, screaming, “Oh God, they are lying.”
Her husband, Kayode Valentine, Aaron’s stepfather, struggled to console her.
Police reports claim officers from the Home Invasion Team, accompanied by members of the T&T Defence Force, arrived at about 4.27 pm on Wednesday to execute a warrant for arms and ammunition. They said the breach team encountered Anderson upstairs, and he pointed a firearm at them. Fearing for their lives, they said a Defence Force sergeant fired one round from his G36 rifle, striking Anderson in the head. The weapon fell from his hand, police said, and was found to be a loaded Glock pistol.
Anderson was rushed to the Point Fortin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5.06 pm.
Crime scene investigators recovered a Glock 19 with a magazine and 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition, along with one spent 5.56 shell, in the house.
The police report did not say what led officers to the house, or how long they remained.
Maharaj was not home at the time. She had left around 3 pm with her husband and their children. On the way back, heavy traffic made her uneasy. As they neared the hill, they heard that shots had been fired at their house. Valentine said Maharaj jumped from the car and ran when they saw police at the house.
Maharaj yesterday told Guardian Media that what she knows of the incident came from neighbours and relatives. Everyone else in the house was downstairs when officers took her eldest son upstairs, she claimed. One neighbour, who did not want to be named, told her officers rushed the back door and dragged him in by his hair. Neighbours, she claimed, said they heard him pleading for his life before the gunshots. She claimed he was then dragged through the living room and into a waiting van.
“They executed him. They couldn’t lock him up,” she said.
The family also alleged that an 18-year-old relative who witnessed the incident was pushed to the floor and had her phone thrown away. Valentine said Anderson’s girlfriend and another minor were also in the house.
Maharaj further claimed that one of Anderson’s relatives directed police to the home.
Valentine claimed he was also beaten outside the gate when he tried to tell officers he lived there. He said officers ordered him to leave and he could not even take out his phone. He said police remained at the house for more than six hours searching for a gun, even looking in the roof, and insisted there was no weapon in the home.
“I know in this house here, it had no gun. I am sure about that,” Valentine said.
He questioned why the family was never shown a firearm.
“If all they say is they found a gun in this house, aren’t I entitled to see the firearm?”
The family, though, did not claim Anderson was blameless. Maharaj said he was no saint, got caught up with the wrong people and had been arrested and charged before. Valentine said he had known Anderson since he was small and never saw him as that kind of young man. But, the family said nothing he did justified how he died.
Now, the family says, they are afraid. They allege police have warned them to stay silent and fear reprisals if they speak out.
PCA concerned over spike in police-involved shootings
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has expressed concern over 15 fatal police-involved shooting incidents recorded between August 1 and October 28, involving 19 victims.
In a statement yesterday, the PCA said the frequency of the incidents within such a short period demanded attention, accountability and action.
A total of 48 people have been killed in police-led law enforcement activity so far this year.
The authority stressed that every use of lethal force by police required independent scrutiny, including an examination of whether the force used was necessary, proportionate and in accordance with the law. As an independent investigative body, the PCA said it was committed to investigating matters thoroughly, impartially, and without fear, favour or prejudice.
It said public confidence depended on credible and rigorous investigations into deaths involving police and reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring such incidents received independent scrutiny.
Police said inquiries into the latest incident are continuing. Guardian Media reached out to the Defence Force for comment and is awaiting one.
