Monday, October 19 2009

THERE are more questions than answers in the shooting by police officers last Wednesday of two men — Fabian Mauge, 26, and Ricky Roberts, 39, — suspected of being involved in the shooting death of a DVD vendor, Andy Bynoe, moments earlier in the heart of Port-of-Spain.

Newsday on Friday reported that Bynoe was gunned down by two men who alighted from a car at his DVD stall at Broadway, after which police officers pursued a suspected car to the Beetham Estate.

At 19th Street at the Beetham Estate, the officers shot at the men, with some news reports saying the suspected men had opened fire first.

However relatives of the deceased claimed them to be innocent.

Wayne Mauge, the father of Fabian Mauge, claimed he was too drunk to have been involved in any criminal actions, saying he was too intoxicated to even participate in a game of dominos. “My son was not the kind of person to kill people. He was no saint, but he was no killer,” said Wayne Mauge. He said Mauge and Roberts had been nowhere near Port-of-Spain on the fateful Wednesday night.

Where we sit, we cannot fathom whether the two deceased men had been the guilty party in the murder of Bynoe, or not.

However, by the following evening the shooting of the duo had led to protests by some angry residents of the Beetham Estate who lit fires and barricaded the Beetham Highway.

Again, we cannot say if this anger was due to claims of mistaken identity, or simply a case of community solidarity regardless of the culpability of the suspects.

Reports are that stones were hurled at some passing motorists.

There were even reports of gunshots sounding out at the estate.

As a result of the unrest, a heavy police presence was dispatched to the estate, with residents being instructed to stay indoors.

Within a few hours, the protest was brought under control.

However, questions remain, awaiting answers. Firstly, were the deceased duo actually the killers of Bynoe, or not? If not, where are the killers? Secondly, did the police operate a shoot- first policy when they encountered the suspects, or is it true as some reports say, that the police themselves had come under fire?

Acting Commissioner of Police, James Philbert, must now interview his officers about the shootings, and according to the information he gets, he must decide whether or not to launch a formal investigation.

We hope Mr Philbert would be able to access video footage from the many closed-circuit television cameras with which the capital city was peppered for last April’s Fifth Summit of the Americas and next month’s Commonwealth meeting.

Meanwhile, we ask, what is the Government doing to curb the vast numbers of illegal guns which are suspected of being in circulation on our city streets?

Also, given the fact that so many shootings are in fact the result of tit-for-tat gang rivalries, we must wonder how successful or otherwise is the Government’s campaign to crack this country’s dire gang problem?

While the intricate details of the two shooting incidents on Wednesday evening might not yet be fully known or indeed be fully agreed on by all parties, we say that it must be taken seriously by all.

It concerns not just the basic question of how correctly the police are exercising their powers, but also shows the potential for unrest when there is a mismatch between the perceptions of reality held by the authorities and by a particular community. Notably, this unrest has occurred not at some far flung backwater, but along the very artery that feeds the capital city.