分类： society

A devastating early-morning road accident on Tobago’s Claude Noel Highway has claimed the lives of two local construction workers, leaving their tight-knit community in mourning and prompting renewed calls for cautious driving across the island.

The fatal incident unfolded just after 10 a.m. on Thursday, when the vehicle carrying the two men—identified as Shakka Rivers and Keyon “Sprang” Nimblett, both lifelong residents of Signal Hill, Tobago—careened out of control. According to Corporal Carva Vincent, public information officer for the Tobago Traffic Branch, Nimblett was behind the wheel traveling east when he attempted to swerve to avoid an oncoming approaching vehicle. The evasive maneuver sent the car spinning off the roadway, where it first struck a road traffic sign before colliding with a large tree along the highway’s southern shoulder. Witnesses and first responders reported the vehicle went fully airborne after losing control, and both men were pronounced dead at the crash site.

By the time recovery teams arrived to extract the victims’ bodies, grieving family members had already reached the scene. The two workers were close friends outside of their jobs, and their loved ones were inconsolable, with loud screams of grief echoing across the crash site as the bodies were removed.

For Rivers’ family, the accident comes on the heels of an already devastating period. Kyria Caton, Rivers’ brother, told local reporters he was at home when he received the urgent phone call about the crash. “To be honest, I start to cry and ask God how much more because just November we buried (our mother) and now my brother. It is overwhelming,” Caton said.

Nigel Taitt, the local area representative for Signal Hill Patience Hill and a close cousin of Rivers, was visibly shaken when he arrived at the scene. “Shakka is my cousin, my very close cousin and Sprang my very close friend so right now I am emotional and hurt because I was not expecting this news,” Taitt told reporters. “I must say condolences to the rest of the family, friends of the men but I am emotional and shaken up.”

In the wake of the crash, Corporal Vincent issued an urgent appeal to motorists across Tobago, emphasizing that excessive speed was a primary contributing factor in the double fatality. “There is no need for speed, speed is of paramount in most of these road traffic accidents which resulted in two persons dying because of speed. Take your time, you will reach where you have to go. If you have to reach a destination a certain time leave way before and take your time. Look we have persons now, families are mourning now for the death of these two individuals,” he said.

This latest crash brings Tobago’s total road fatalities for the current calendar year to four, underscoring ongoing concerns about road safety across the Trinidad and Tobago islands.

A fatal police shooting in a residential neighborhood near San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago has ignited public anger and calls for accountability after 45-year-old laborer Shivnath Jogie was killed by officers responding to a domestic altercation report early Sunday morning. The incident, which unfolded at Jogie’s home on Old Trainline Road in Corinth, has left family members, neighbors, and former law enforcement leaders questioning the necessity of the deadly force used, while police defend their officers’ actions as compliant with official protocols.

According to official statements from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), officers were dispatched to the area just after 1 a.m. at the request of emergency health services, who needed support responding to a reported wounding. First responders found 33-year-old Quesi Alfred, a local resident, suffering from a head wound inside a nearby home, and after providing initial care to Alfred, they received information that led them to Jogie’s residence a short distance away. The TTPS account claims that when officers arrived at Jogie’s home, he approached them menacingly while armed with a cutlass in one hand and a hammer in the other. Fearing for their immediate safety, officers followed use-of-force protocol and fired a single round that struck Jogie, who was quickly transported to San Fernando General Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

But Jogie’s family and local witnesses are telling a vastly different story, painting the incident as an unnecessary execution that violated Jogie’s right to defend his own property under Trinidadian law. Britney Francis, Jogie’s niece, told local reporters that the altercation that preceded the police response was not initiated by her uncle. She explained that Alfred had entered Jogie’s yard armed with a cutlass to confront him, and Jogie only acted in self-defense to disarm Alfred and chop him during the struggle. After the fight, Alfred returned to his own home and contacted authorities, not Jogie.

Francis has raised sharp questions about why officers resorted to lethal force so quickly, pointing to Trinidad and Tobago’s 2025 Home Invasion (Self-Defence and Defence of Property) Act, which grants homeowners the legal right to stand their ground against intruders and use reasonable force—including deadly force when necessary—to protect themselves and their property. “This was an execution. It was a straight shot to his face,” Francis said. “If the police did their job properly, he might not have been dead today. They shot him in his face, a single gunshot wound.”

Neighbors who gathered at the scene on Monday echoed the family’s demands for a full, transparent investigation, describing the shooting as heartless, unjust, and out of proportion to the threat Jogie allegedly posed. One witness, who said he saw the confrontation unfold, called the incident a failure of policing, saying “it was traumatising to see someone getting killed in their own home for defending themselves.” Another long-time neighbor who knew Jogie for decades described him as a non-violent man who only became talkative when drinking, holding no grudges and presenting no danger to the community. “This is the first time that we have experienced something like this in his district. We want a proper investigation,” the resident said.

Francis also added her voice to growing calls for mandatory body cameras for all on-duty police officers, noting that camera footage would eliminate conflicting accounts of the incident and provide clear proof of exactly what transpired. “If there was footage to show exactly what had happened, it would save us from having questions and wasting time with ‘he said’ and ‘she said’, and to have proof of what took place,” she explained.

That call was echoed by former Trinidad and Tobago Police Commissioner Gary Griffith, who issued a scathing rebuke of current TTPS leadership on Facebook, blaming “backward and vindictive leadership” for the fatal outcome. During his tenure as commissioner, Griffith secured funding to equip all patrol officers with non-lethal force options including batons, pepper spray, and tasers, as well as body cameras to document all interactions with the public, creating a tiered use-of-force framework that allowed officers to respond proportionally to different threat levels. But Griffith claims current leadership has stored all of this non-lethal and recording equipment in a warehouse, rejecting the technology and minimum force policy out of malice and ignorance. “In this situation, if they were mandated to be equipped with what I provided, it would not have resulted in a death,” Griffith wrote. “But those in authority, out of malice and ignorance in embracing technology and minimum use of force, have decided to put the thousands of pepper spray, tasers, and body cameras in a warehouse. Well done.”

In its official statement, the TTPS reaffirmed that its officers acted within the bounds of existing use-of-force policy, and noted that all police-involved shootings are automatically subject to rigorous, thorough review per established legal and internal protocols. The service asked the public to remain calm while the active investigation moves forward, saying the case remains at a sensitive stage. As public pressure mounts for transparency, the investigation into Jogie’s death continues, with community leaders and the family waiting for answers about what really happened inside the Corinth home that early Sunday morning.

In the quiet neighborhood of Old Train Line in Corinth, a early-morning police response to a reported altercation has left a community in mourning and sparked urgent questions about the appropriate use of deadly force by law enforcement. Early Sunday morning, 45-year-old laborer Shivnath Jogie was fatally shot by officers inside his own residence, and pronounced dead shortly after arriving at San Fernando General Hospital.

According to initial official accounts from police, the team was dispatched to Jogie’s property around 1:30 a.m. to probe a report that Jogie had attacked a neighbor with a cutlass, inflicting chop wounds, during a dispute on his own land. During what police describe as a confrontation with the suspect, officers opened fire, striking Jogie. He was immediately transported to the regional hospital for emergency care, but medical staff were unable to save him.

However, Jogie’s family and neighbors have rejected the official narrative, pushing back hard on the circumstances that led to his death, and alleging that the encounter escalated unnecessarily and unjustly ended an innocent man’s life. Britney Francis, a relative of Jogie, has openly questioned why law enforcement resorted to lethal force when they arrived only to investigate a reported incident. Francis clarified that the incident prompting the visit was a dispute between Jogie and another resident on the street earlier that evening.

Francis has also raised a critical legal question rooted in Trinidad and Tobago’s 2025 Home Invasion (Self-Defence and Defence of Property) Act, popularly referred to as the nation’s “Stand Your Ground” legislation. The law explicitly grants people on their own property the legal right to defend themselves without a duty to retreat, and permits the use of reasonable force — including lethal force — when a person reasonably believes it is necessary to protect their life or property from criminal harm. Francis questioned whether Jogie was within his legal rights to act in self-defense if he perceived a threat to his property.

In blunt terms, Francis described the shooting as an extrajudicial killing: “This was an execution. It was a straight shot to his face. If the police did their job properly, he might not have been dead today. They shot him in his face, a single gunshot wound.”

By Sunday morning, dozens of neighbors had gathered near Jogie’s home to express solidarity with his family and back their calls for a full, independent probe of the officers’ actions. One witness to the confrontation called the shooting a heartless, cruel injustice and a fundamental failure of policing. “It was traumatising to see someone getting killed in their own home for defending themselves,” the neighbor said.

Another long-time resident who has known Jogie since childhood described the fatal shooting as “unjust,” pushing back against any implication that Jogie was a habitually violent person. “I grew up with him and when he drink alcohol, he would talk plenty. He was not a violent guy at all, he didn’t keep no grudges. He was a good fella,” the resident said. “This is the first time that we have experienced something like this in his district. We want a proper investigation.”

In addition to calling for a full investigation, Francis also urged policy change, saying that mandatory body camera use for all police officers should be required to add transparency and accountability to law enforcement interactions. The community remains united in its demand that every detail of the shooting be brought to light to deliver justice for Jogie.