标签： Trinidad and Tobago

A devastating fatal accident at one of Tobago’s most popular coastal destinations has reignited long-simmering calls for a total ban on personal watercraft across the island, after a seven-year-old vacationing girl was struck and killed by a jet ski while playing in shallow water.

The tragedy unfolded on Wednesday at Pigeon Point Heritage Park, where Angelica Saydee Jogie, a primary school student from Barrackpore who was visiting Tobago for the Easter holiday with her family, was hit by the watercraft while swimming. The young victim was just two weeks away from her eighth birthday.

By Thursday morning, law enforcement officers from the Tobago Divisional Task Force had taken a man from Canaan Feeder Road, Tobago, into custody in connection with the incident. Investigations into the girl’s death remain ongoing, and the jet ski involved in the crash was seized by police on Wednesday night and is currently held as evidence at the Crown Point Police Station.

In an emotional interview with local outlet *Express* on Thursday, Salisha Jogie, the victim’s heartbroken mother, made an urgent public plea for sweeping policy change to prevent other families from suffering the same devastating loss. Alongside demanding full accountability for the incident and public disclosure of the detained man’s identity, Jogie called for a permanent ban on all jet ski operations across Tobago’s coastal waters.

“I don’t want anyone else to have to feel the pain I am carrying right now,” Jogie said. “This tragedy must be a wake-up call. It is not just about holding the person responsible for what happened to my daughter accountable. It is about protecting every child that comes to these waters after her. We cannot let this happen to another family.”

Jogie emphasized that the incident has exposed unaddressed risks of unregulated jet ski use in high-traffic public swimming areas, stressing that policy action is long overdue. “My request is that these jet skis be removed from Tobago’s popular recreational areas,” she said. “This death must leave a legacy that saves other children’s lives.”

Reginald Mac Lean, head of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association, joined the call for an all-out ban on Wednesday, framing unregulated jet skis as a persistent public safety threat that has already caused too much harm. “Jet skis are ticking time bombs along our coasts,” Mac Lean said. “Too many people have already been seriously injured, and too many lives have been lost. If operators cannot abide by existing rules that keep them out of designated swimming areas crowded with beachgoers, they should be banned completely across Trinidad and Tobago.”

Mac Lean added that there is no shortage of safer alternative water activities for tourists to enjoy, making a total ban a reasonable and necessary step to protect both visitors and local communities.

A senseless tragedy has cut short the life of a young primary school student at one of Tobago’s most popular coastal destinations, leaving a family shattered and prompting local authorities to promise sweeping safety reviews for public beach operations.

Seven-year-old Angelica Sadie Jogie, a resident of Barrackpore and student at San Fernando TML Primary School, was swimming with her family inside the designated bathing perimeter at Pigeon Point Beach on Wednesday when an out-of-control jet ski smashed through the safety rope and struck the group. The incident happened mid-day as the family enjoyed a day out at the Heritage Park, a top tourist and local recreation spot.

Darren Jogie, Angelica’s uncle, who was among the group caught in the collision, recalled the chaotic moments after impact in an interview with local media outlet *Express*. “We were bathing inside the roped-off area, not even far from the boundary, and this jet ski just came out of nowhere. It hit me, it hit my brother, and it hit my niece. Two of us were knocked unconscious instantly. Sadie took the full force of the crash — her entire face was mangled,” Jogie described. The uncle himself suffered visible head injuries in the collision.

Bystanders and family members immediately pulled the injured child from the water and administered emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene to try to restart her pulse. She was rushed to Scarborough General Hospital for urgent medical intervention, but despite the best efforts of first responders and hospital care teams, the seven-year-old succumbed to her injuries during treatment.

In the hours after the crash, Farley Augustine, Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), addressed the tragedy during an emergency press briefing, confirming the details of the incident and outlining the ongoing response. Authorities confirmed that immediately after the collision, the jet ski operator fled the Pigeon Point area, leaving the injured group behind. Law enforcement has already seized the abandoned watercraft, and teams from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) are conducting a full manhunt to locate the operator.

Augustine described the young girl’s death as a profoundly unfortunate incident, noting that conversations about improving safety management at Pigeon Point Heritage Park have been ongoing for years, with a stated goal of prioritizing visitor safety above all other concerns. “This collision happened in a zone explicitly cordoned off for swimmers. The jet ski breached the perimeter and hit a mother, father, and uncle, and we lost a little girl as a result,” Augustine said, extending official condolences to Angelica’s parents Arnold and Salisha Jogie and the entire extended family.

The THA Chief Secretary added that parallel investigations are underway beyond the TTPS’s criminal probe. The local governing body is reviewing whether park staff and licensed jet ski operators adhered to mandatory safety protocols, and whether post-incident emergency response aligned with established operational standards. Augustine confirmed the Executive Council will move forward to implement stricter safety oversight for all activities at the park to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Shortly after the incident, THA Tourism Secretary Zorisha Hackett, Assistant Secretary Nikita Percy, and other senior local officials traveled to Scarborough General Hospital to meet with the grieving Jogie family and offer official sympathies and support on behalf of the Tobago House of Assembly. As of Thursday morning, the family remains in shock, struggling to process the sudden loss of the young girl, with no update on when the operator will be taken into custody.

A fatal shooting has shaken the quiet community of Vistabella in San Fernando, Trinidad, claiming the life of a well-known local construction businessman and leaving investigators untangling the circumstances of a deadly confrontation between the victim and an unidentified woman early yesterday morning.

Thirty-seven-year-old Steve Ghany, a married father of two with 11 years of marriage, was deeply embedded in his family’s multi-project construction business and was also a prominent figure in the local jet-ski community. According to initial police accounts, the conflict erupted shortly after 8:30 a.m. inside Ghany’s residential property, when a verbal argument between Ghany and the woman escalated rapidly into a physical altercation.

After several minutes of back-and-forth struggle, law enforcement reports indicate Ghany retrieved a firearm and fired shots toward the woman, who emerged from that exchange unharmed. Investigators were later told by a Ghany family relative that the woman then seized a second weapon and returned fire, striking Ghany multiple times. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene before emergency responders could intervene.

Crime scene processing teams recovered two functional firearms and 11 spent bullet casings from the property as key evidence. The woman involved was taken into custody at the home immediately after the shooting; she was transported to receive mandatory medical assessment before being moved to a holding facility at the Southern Division police station.

Multiple law enforcement units, including Region Three Homicide Detectives, the Southern Division Task Force, and the San Fernando Criminal Investigations Department, have launched a full probe to map out the full sequence of events and identify what motive sparked the deadly confrontation. Attorney Prakash Ramadhar, who visited the Ghany residence to meet with family members and law enforcement shortly after the incident, declined to comment on the case when contacted by local outlet Express. “It is too early at this time to make a statement on behalf of the family,” Ramadhar said via phone.

A Ghany family employee, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, described the chaotic moments after he arrived for work yesterday. The worker said he first heard a series of loud bangs around 9:15 a.m. but did not immediately recognize the sounds as gunfire. “I went to check the work we were supposed to do today on the house, when we heard a few noises like ‘Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!’ My son asked me if that noise was galvanise pounding. About five minutes later, a policeman came into the yard and asked me what was happening. I told him I didn’t know what was going on. It was a while after I realised that something had happened,” the employee recalled.

The worker spoke warmly of Ghany, describing him as a fair, approachable employer who treated his staff like family. “Steve treated all of his workers very good, and he was understanding. He would call those fellas on the phone and talk to them normal. He said we were part of his family, and he trusted us, his workers,” the employee said.

The shooting comes just months after a separate high-profile gun violence incident that rocked the Ghany family. In December 2024, Ghany’s stepmother Monica Ghany was killed in a targeted ambush, and his brother Matthew was wounded. The attack unfolded as Monica and Matthew left San Fernando General Hospital, driving along a major commuter route near the water taxi ferry terminal on their way back to the family’s San Fernando home. Gunmen in an oncoming vehicle pulled alongside and opened fire on the driver’s side of their Nissan Tiida, striking Monica multiple times in the upper body. She was pronounced dead at the scene, while Matthew survived a gunshot wound to his right hand. The attackers fled the area, and the killing remains an open, unsolved case. Monica Ghany’s husband — also named Steve Ghany — died just a few months after the ambush.

Speaking to reporters yesterday at the formal handing-over ceremony for the new Penal Fire Station, Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander offered public condolences to the Ghany family, noting he had met with Steve Ghany just over the weekend during a visit to a local rifle range. “I hope the good Lord bless his soul, and that the family will be able to live again after this incident,” Alexander said, confirming that investigators are still working to piece together all details of yesterday’s shooting.

In a stunning courtroom twist that closed a 31-year chapter of unsolved violence, convicted serial killer Rex Heuermann has pleaded guilty to the murder of eight women, including 28-year-old Trinidadian native Sandra Costilla, in a Suffolk County, New York court. The 62-year-old Manhattan architect, a married father of two who hid a brutal double life as a predatory killer for three decades, entered the guilty plea this week, reversing his earlier not guilty plea entered ahead of his scheduled September 2024 trial.

Heuermann, who stood 6-foot-4, began his killing spree as early as 1993, when Costilla – a migrant who had moved to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago at age 17 and was living in Queens at the time – became his earliest known victim. On November 20, 1993, two hunters discovered her body on New York’s Long Island in the North Sea area. Court documents detail extensive, brutal injuries: multiple sharp-force wounds to her face, torso, breasts, left thigh, and vaginal region, with her body positioned in a degrading arrangement. Heuermann confirmed in court this week that he strangled Costilla to death, the same method he used to kill all eight of his confirmed victims. He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder, which includes Costilla’s killing.

For three decades, Costilla’s case remained unsolved, until advances in forensic DNA testing connected cold case evidence to Heuermann, who was first arrested in 2023 in connection with the long-running Gilgo Beach serial killings. During the initial 1993 investigation of Costilla’s death, forensic analysts from the Suffolk County Crime Lab recovered three hair strands from her body and clothing: one from her right arm, one from a striped shirt found near her body, and a third from a white shirt. DNA testing at the time confirmed one hair came from a male suspect, and the other two from female contributors. Decades later, the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force retested the evidence, and in February 2024, forensic results confirmed the male hair from Costilla’s striped shirt matched Heuermann’s DNA. One of the two female hairs was even traced to a woman who lived with Heuermann shortly before Costilla’s 1993 murder, cementing the connection between the killer and the decades-old crime.

Courtroom observers reported Heuermann spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact tone about his crimes, confirming that he dismembered some victims and bound others by the head and legs. Investigators who seized 422 electronic devices from Heuermann’s home uncovered disturbing evidence that prefigured his crimes: a handwritten planning document that noted “SMALL IS GOOD” – a reference to the fact that all eight of his known victims, including Costilla, were petite women. Another entry in the planning document read: “HIT HARDER TOO MANY HIT TO TAKE DOWN. CONSIDER A HIT TO THE FACE OR NECK NEXT TIME FOR TAKE DOWN.”

Investigators also found a massive, decades-spanning collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography on his devices, dating back to 1994. The content includes graphic depictions of breast mutilation, sexualized violence against women, bondage, and whipping – imagery that aligns closely with the injuries found on Costilla and two other victims. Unlike many of Heuermann’s later victims, who were sex workers, investigators have found no evidence Costilla worked in the sex trade. Unlike his later crimes, which relied on disposable burner phones to contact victims, the 1993 killing of Costilla predates widespread consumer cell phone use and social media, leaving investigators still unclear on how Heuermann first encountered his earliest victim. Heuermann is scheduled to receive his formal sentence on June 17, 2024.

In an update from Trinidad and Tobago law enforcement Wednesday, nine people taken into custody over the widespread recent vandalism of critical Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) facilities across Tobago have been freed as the probe continues to advance. Among the group released around midday Tuesday were one current WASA employee and two women, with all nine hailing from distinct communities across the twin islands, including Claxton Bay, Golden Lane, Smithfield, Scarborough, and Delaford, according to Superintendent Rodhil Kirk, the lead officer on the case, who shared details with local outlet the Express.

Kirk stressed that the release of the detainees does not signal a conclusion to the investigation, which he noted is currently progressing through a sensitive phase. “They were released pending further enquiries into the matter. It does not mean that the investigation has stopped. The investigation remains ongoing at a sensitive stage,” Kirk stated. He also issued a public appeal for residents to maintain heightened awareness of activity near WASA sites, urging anyone who observes suspicious behavior to come forward immediately with information to assist the probe.

The coordinated acts of intentional damage targeted four of Tobago’s core water infrastructure hubs between March 27 and 28: Arnos Vale Well #4, Bacolet Well #3, Bloody Bay Well #1, and the Claude Noel Highway Well, which includes a major supply tank farm. The destruction severely disrupted water distribution networks across large swathes of the island, leaving thousands of local residents without reliable access to running water and forcing urgent last-minute adjustments as crews worked to restore services.

The incident drew swift and harsh condemnation from top regional and national officials. Minister of Public Utilities Barry Padarath joined Tobago’s Chief Secretary Farley Augustine in labeling the coordinated attack as an act of “domestic terrorism”, noting the deliberate threat it posed to public welfare. In response to the attack, the national government has already moved to deploy additional security resources to protect utility sites across the country, and is collaborating with the Attorney General’s office to draft stricter legal penalties for individuals convicted of damaging critical public infrastructure.

For its part, WASA has reminded the public that damaging public utility property constitutes a serious criminal offense under two existing laws: the Summary Offences Act (Chap. 11:02) and the Malicious Damage Act (Chap. 11:06). Convictions under these statutes can result in substantial fines and even custodial sentences for perpetrators. In addition to ramping up physical security patrols and monitoring at its highest-risk facilities, the authority has launched a dedicated 24/7 Vandalism Hotline at 465-2949 to allow anonymous tip-offs from the public about planned or suspicious activity.

Investigating authorities are continuing to piece together evidence and identify any additional perpetrators connected to the attack, with officials repeatedly emphasizing that acts of vandalism against critical water infrastructure do not only cause temporary service disruptions. They also pose a direct threat to the health, safety, and daily routines of all local residents, highlighting the need for collective community action to prevent similar attacks in the future.

A well-known local businessman in San Fernando has been killed in a shooting at his private residence early Wednesday, in an incident law enforcement officials have linked to a confrontation with an unidentified woman. The victim, identified as Steve Ghany Jr., played an active role in his family’s multi-faceted construction business, and had built a strong public reputation as a leading member of the regional jet ski enthusiast community.

Preliminary law enforcement briefings confirm that the fatal shooting unfolded around 10 a.m., amid a domestic dispute between Ghany Jr. and the woman at his home. Emergency responders pronounced Ghany Jr. dead at the scene shortly after the shooting, once his injuries proved immediately fatal.

In the hours following the incident, authorities took a woman suspected of ties to the killing into custody. She is currently cooperating with investigative teams as they work to unpack the full sequence of events that led to the shooting. Detectives have not yet released a confirmed motive for the attack, and are still working through statements and evidence to piece together exactly what transpired.

Notably, Wednesday’s killing is not the first violent attack to strike the Ghany family in recent months. Back in December 2024, Ghany Jr.’s stepmother Monica Ghany was killed in a targeted shooting that also injured his 20-year-old brother Matthew. That attack unfolded as the pair was driving along a major access road into San Fernando, a route commonly used by commuters leaving the city’s Ferry Terminal after traveling via water taxi. Investigators say the two had just left the San Fernando General Hospital minutes before the shooting, and were en route to their family home on Alexander Road when a second vehicle carrying gunmen approached from the opposite direction along the wharf road.

Gunmen inside that vehicle fired multiple rounds directly into the driver’s side windshield of the Ghany vehicle. Multiple bullets struck Monica Ghany in the upper body, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Matthew suffered a gunshot wound to his right hand but survived the attack. The shooters fled the area at high speed immediately after the attack, and that case remains unsolved as of today.

Multiple law enforcement units have been assigned to investigate Wednesday’s fatal shooting, including detectives from the Region Three Homicide Bureau of Investigations, the Southern Division Task Force, and the San Fernando Criminal Investigations Division.