Counselling for family of woman killed during protest

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The T&T Police Service has started providing counselling to the family of Ornella Greaves, who was killed during protest action at the Beetham Gardens, Laventille, on Tuesday.

Darren Joseph, the husband of the 30-year-old mother of five, confirmed yesterday that the Police Welfare and Social Association had reached out to him yesterday.

Greaves was fatally shot during a confrontation between police and protestors. She was pregnant with what would have been her sixth child, and her fifth child with Joseph. An investigation concerning who shot her is ongoing.

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith also said yesterday that he was willing to meet with Joseph, despite Joseph stating he wanted Griffith “to feel what he feels” during a live television interview on Tuesday.

“Yeah, I will speak to the individual even though he said what he intended to do to me and my family. I understand he is hurting and obviously, I would be more than willing to meet with him,” Griffith said during yesterday’s weekly TTPS press conference at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain.

Griffith also confirmed an investigation was underway to confirm who actually shot Greaves.

However, Griffith said the possibility remained that rival gangs colluded to put together yesterday’s demonstration, which he maintained was an attempt to destabilise the country.

“It is quite possible. It is amazing that the vast majority of 538 murders last year was based on one group trying to kill others in the other group and what brings them together is the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And if that is what two murderous gangs together, to try to form some sort of strategic alliance, it says a lot about the character of those individuals,” Griffith said.

Griffith also hit back at a newspaper editorial which criticised his decision to stay at the operation command centre, explaining this was a tactical approach to handling a man-made or natural disaster. He also slammed the newspaper’s suggestion that the police had no evidence there was a plot to destablise the country, as he said it discredited the country’s intelligence agency.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayson Forde also pointed out that members of the public tipped off the police to Tuesday’s events.

“Because of our partnership with our citizens, we were getting snippets of information since the night before that some type of disruption was planned for yesterday (Tuesday). What we did not have was the magnitude, the scale that this disruption was about.

“So we pre-planned and even though we pre-planned, because that operation was calculated and when you look at what happened yesterday, it was calculated,” Forde said.