标签： Trinidad and Tobago

A violent public incident in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, has sparked widespread concern after a senior local political official was beaten by a group of high school students when he attempted to break up a street brawl on Monday afternoon.

Alderman Wayne Griffith, 62, who serves as chairman of the Port of Spain South constituency executive for the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), recalled the chaotic encounter in a detailed phone interview with local media. The attack unfolded around 2:30 p.m. on Dundonald Street, near the intersection with New Street, when Griffith was blocked by a crowd of students from Tranquillity Government Secondary School who had gathered in the middle of the roadway.

Upon stopping, Griffith noticed that more than a dozen teenagers were ganging up to beat a single younger boy. Griffith told reporters that one 15- to 16-year-old girl had the boy pinned in a chokehold, while the rest of the group rained down blows on him. Choosing to intervene, Griffith exited his vehicle, ordered the crowd to disperse, and pulled the girl away from the victim. What followed was a sudden, violent turn against the 62-year-old.

“Immediately, this young lady cuffed me straight in my mouth,” Griffith recalled. He attempted to step away from the confrontation, but the girl and other students continued to pursue him. Griffith tripped and fell to the ground, and the group immediately followed up with repeated punches and kicks to his head and body. A 36-second cellphone video of the assault, which has circulated widely across social media platforms, captures the female student punching Griffith, grabbing his shirt, and throwing him to the ground before other members of the group join in the attack.

Despite the sustained beating and intense pain, Griffith made the deliberate choice not to retaliate against the teenage attackers. “Although they did not act like children, I was cognisant they were children and youths,” he explained. “I took no action that could cause them harm.”

After the assault ended, Griffith slowly regained his composure and attempted to call police for help, only to discover that his cellphone and a watch, valued together at TT $7,000, had been stolen during the attack. With bystanders from nearby businesses only watching the ordeal, Griffith had to drag himself to the door of a local agency to get help.

Griffith detailed the extent of his injuries, which include deep lacerations across both knees, both elbows, and the palms of his hands, as well as severe damage to his left hamstring. While no bones were broken, he has suffered persistent severe headaches and underwent a CT scan to rule out internal brain damage, seeking treatment from a private medical provider. He added that he has no regrets over his decision to step in to stop the group attack on the younger student.

Local political leaders have publicly expressed their concern and support for Griffith following the attack. Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland praised the alderman for his remarkable restraint, noting that if Griffith had retaliated against the minors, he would have faced widespread public condemnation instead of support. “He’s an elder, a hard worker, a patriot,” Scotland said. “I want to commend him for his restraint and discipline.”

Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne confirmed the May 4 incident in a statement, noting that the Ministry of Education and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) are both currently investigating the attack. Walter Stewart, president of the National Parent-Teacher Association, extended condolences to Griffith over the violent encounter.

As of Tuesday, local media have been unable to secure comments from Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath and Crystal Ashe, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association, on the incident.

In the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, a targeted ambush by masked gunmen left a young woman dead and her partner fighting for his life in a quiet Princes Town neighborhood, sending shockwaves through the local community and reigniting fears of violent crime. The fatal attack unfolded just 16 minutes after midnight, along Malgretoute Road, cutting short the life of 27-year-old Monifer Carrie, a resident of Beetham Gardens. Her traveling companion, 31-year-old Isaiah Cruickshank—who goes by the street name “Touchy” and lives in Princes Town’s Moonan Avenue neighborhood—sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed into emergency medical care.

According to official police accounts, the couple was traveling east in a white Nissan Sentra when their path was suddenly blocked by another white vehicle, a Nissan AD wagon, close to the intersection of Manahambre Branch Street. Two assailants, their identities hidden by masks, exited the blocking vehicle and unleashed a barrage of gunfire directly into the couple’s car before making a quick escape from the area.

Though struck multiple times by gunfire, Cruickshank managed to flee the immediate scene to get help before returning to the ambush site. It was one of Cruickshank’s relatives who eventually found Carrie lying on the roadside after the attack. First responders transported both victims to the Princes Town District Health Facility, where medical staff pronounced Carrie dead at 12:36 a.m., just 16 minutes after the shooting began. Cruickshank was subsequently transferred to the larger San Fernando General Hospital to receive more advanced care for his injuries.

When local media outlet Express visited the tight-knit community just hours after the violence, residents were still reeling from the terrifying incident, with many describing profound trauma from the attack. One resident told reporters they counted roughly 18 separate gunshots fired during the ambush. A local woman, who asked to remain unnamed, shared that she immediately pulled her children out of their beds and threw them to the floor of her home to shield them from stray bullets when the shooting started. “I heard the bang, and shots pelting. I saw flashes. The shooting was for a good while,” she recalled. “A bullet went through the house. I took my children and put them on the ground. I told them to duck their heads. I was real frightened. My daughter is traumatised.”

She went on to detail the chaotic sequence of events she witnessed from her home: after the first round of fire, the wounded Cruickshank drove a short distance before crashing into a wall near a local standpipe. One of the gunmen then moved behind the damaged vehicle and continued firing, before opening the car’s front door and shooting again—at which point she heard Carrie scream. Carrie fell from the vehicle onto the road, while the second gunman fled through a residential yard adjacent to a local shop, before family members arrived to retrieve the victim.

A relative of Cruickshank shared that the couple left their two-year-old son with Carrie’s family for the night, meaning the young child was not present during the attack. As local law enforcement launched a full investigation, led by teams from the Princes Town Criminal Investigations Department and the Region Three Homicide Bureau of Investigations, officials confirmed that the country’s national murder toll now stands at 127 for the year to date. That figure is slightly lower than the 135 recorded during the same period last year.

Systemic workplace abuse, including persistent bullying and sexual harassment, has been revealed as a pervasive problem for trainee participants in a national On-the-Job Training (OJT) program, with past efforts to bring dedicated mental health support ultimately collapsing, according to testimony given before a parliamentary committee addressing youth unemployment. OJT Director Joann David shared the details of the crisis during the seventh convening of the Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, held to examine rising youth unemployment and underemployment. The discussion of workplace mistreatment was triggered when committee member Sean Sobers pressed David on protections for female trainees, after noting in her written submission that women make up the majority of participants across all five OJT stipend pay brackets. David’s disclosure confirmed that over the three-year period a contracted in-house psychologist served the program, roughly 50 verified cases of workplace abuse were documented by program leadership. Currently, the program relies on placement and marketing officers to act as de facto human resources contacts for trainees, with each staff member managing between 200 and 250 trainees. During pre-placement orientation, all trainees are told these officers are their first point of contact if they experience issues at their host workplaces. David acknowledged that many trainees delay reporting out of fear of retaliation or professional repercussions, but said that once the program is notified via its frontline officers, formal intervention is initiated. In 2022, David, who took over leadership of the OJT program in 2019, pushed for the creation of the in-house psychologist role after observing widespread mental health struggles among trainees between 2019 and 2022. Beyond common workplace stress and anxiety, David said the most pervasive problematic issues uncovered were bullying and sexual harassment. Prior to adding the in-house role, trainees were referred to public mental health services run by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, but extensive wait times and backlogs left many without timely care. “We felt it was prudent to be able to have somebody on staff to be able to guide and provide that support system for the trainees while they were in the programme,” David explained. The role was launched as a pilot project to gather data on the scope of need to justify expanding the program’s mental health services, a point David emphasized in response to Sobers’ observation that one psychologist could not adequately address the volume of abuse cases. Though the pilot successfully collected data demonstrating clear demand for ongoing mental health support, the psychologist’s contract expired and was not renewed, leaving the program with no dedicated mental health support for trainees currently. David also fielded questions about two other gaps in trainee protection: access to the national Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and penalties for host employers found responsible for perpetrating or allowing harassment. She confirmed that OJT trainees are not eligible for EAP benefits, and called on the Ministry of Tertiary Education to step in to address this gap. When abusive conduct is confirmed, David added, the only current consequence for problematic host employers is that they are removed from the program as training providers, with no further regulatory or legal penalties pursued through the OJT program itself.

A week-long search for a missing community member in the quiet coastal community of Icacos took a tragic turn on Thursday, when a multi-agency search team recovered a dismembered body from the area’s dense wetland swamps. The search operation, which brought together volunteer hunters and specialized police units, was launched after 50-year-old Indar Rampersad, a local coconut picker who had lived alone in the area for years, was reported vanished after neighbors had not seen him for nearly seven days.

The grim discovery was the result of coordinated efforts between the volunteer Hunters Search and Rescue Team, headed by veteran search coordinator Vallence Rambharat, and three specialized police divisions: the police Air Support Unit, the South Western Division Task Force, and local Cedros Police officers. According to official police briefings, the recovered body was found with its head severed from the torso. The victim was found shirtless and barefoot, and the corpse had been deliberately concealed under a layer of freshly cut grass before being located by searchers.

Shortly after the body was located at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time, Rambharat confirmed the find in a public social media post timestamped 2:03 p.m., noting that the body was uncovered during the active search for Rampersad. Law enforcement officials moved quickly to contact Rampersad’s next of kin following the discovery, and are now working with family members to complete a formal positive identification of the remains.

When reached for comment by local outlet the Express Thursday evening, an anonymous member of Rampersad’s family shared new details about the missing man’s life in Icacos. The relative confirmed that Rampersad was officially reported missing to police Monday evening, after local residents grew concerned when he failed to appear at his regular coconut selling route. A well-known figure in the small community, Rampersad made his living harvesting coconuts that local buyers would purchase to process into coconut oil, and neighbors began asking after him when he stopped showing up to sell his stock.

The relative explained that Rampersad lived a solitary life, residing alone in an abandoned property near the local district health centre. He never married and had no children, and was the only person currently reported missing from the Icacos community. He also shared identifying markers that will help investigators confirm whether the body found is that of Rampersad: the missing man has no tattoos, lacks an official birth certificate, and lost one of his fingers in a decades-old boat accident, when the digit was crushed and severed during a work outing.

Commenting on the details of the discovery, the relative noted that the black long pants and black belt found on the body matched clothing that Rampersad regularly wore. Echoing the police description of the scene, he added that the location of the find was a remote Icacos swamp, and the concealment of the body under cut grass suggests foul play. “Somebody kill (the person) because they say the body cover down with grass,” the relative told the Express.

As of Thursday evening, investigators from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region Three have taken over the case. Officials have not yet confirmed a potential motive for the killing, and many key details of the disappearance and death remain unconfirmed as the formal identification process and crime scene investigation move forward.

A large-scale fire broke out at the landmark Globe City Plaza commercial complex in Chase Village, Trinidad on Wednesday, triggering a multi-division emergency response from the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service (TTFS) that kept the blaze contained to one section of the site but left millions of dollars in estimated damage and disrupted dozens of local businesses.

The fire ignited just after 9 a.m. local time, starting in a wholesale store located on the eastern side of the sprawling compound, which sits adjacent to the Connector Road highway near the Chase Village overpass. The alarm brought dozens of firefighters from across South and Central Trinidad to the scene, with a total of 35 personnel, five fire tenders, and a specialized Bronco Skylift aerial firefighting unit deployed to tackle the flames, acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer Ansar Ali told reporters.

By midday, crews had successfully stopped the blaze from spreading to adjacent structures, including a foam factory at the rear of the complex and businesses on the western wing. Ali confirmed that the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) provided full support for firefighting operations, with no water supply shortages reported during the response; local media observed at least four truckloads of water delivered to the site within a three-hour window.

Even after containing the spread, Ali noted that crews would need several additional hours to fully extinguish the fire, as collapsed roofing left smoldering hot spots trapped under debris. Fire teams worked through the afternoon to clear rubble and douse remaining embers. As of Wednesday evening, no fatalities had been reported, though a full sweep of the damaged area was still underway to confirm no one was unaccounted for.

A preliminary cause of the fire has not yet been determined, with the investigation assigned to the Central Division’s Fire Prevention Investigation team. The full cost of damage is also still being assessed, though Ali gave an early estimated building value of $4 million, with the total value of inventory and commercial contents still unknown.

The multi-business complex, founded by local businessman RS Jaglal, hosts at least 15 separate commercial operations ranging from retail stores, a hardware outlet, and food service spots to medical clinics, a dental practice, a spa, photo studio, pet supply store, and security firm. A front strip also houses dozens of independent food vendors.

While two-thirds of the complex was saved thanks to the TTFS response, the incident still disrupted operations across the entire site. One tenant, who requested anonymity, confirmed all power to the plaza was cut immediately after the blaze, leaving all unaffected businesses closed indefinitely with no clear timeline for service restoration. Seven businesses in the fire’s eastern path were confirmed destroyed.

For some vendors, however, the outcome was far better than expected. The owner of JoJo Gyro, a front-lot food cart, told reporters he was alerted to the fire just 30 minutes after it broke out and rushed to the site, only to find his business completely unharmed. He praised the TTFS for its rapid, effective response, noting crews arrived on scene within an hour of the blaze starting. Local resident Nicholas Britto, who saw thick plumes of smoke rising from his nearby home in Carlsen Field, confirmed the intensity of the fire, saying large flames were visible above the complex as crews worked to bring them under control.

The heavy smoke from the blaze also triggered major traffic disruptions across the area, prompting authorities to close the Chase Village overpass temporarily. Backups stretched along both northbound and southbound highway lanes as emergency vehicles and onlookers converged on the site. The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure issued an advisory urging motorists to use alternative routes between the overpass and Southern Main Road near Thompson Road for the duration of emergency operations.

Jearlean John, Member of Parliament for Couva North and the country’s Works Minister, visited the scene Wednesday and expressed deep sorrow for the business owners affected. “I am told that seven businesses were destroyed this morning, which means the loss of property, income, and jobs. It is extremely sad when people sacrifice for their families, for their dreams to lose it all in this terrible and unfortunate event,” John said, adding that she planned to meet with affected workers and business owners to offer support. John noted that senior TTFS leaders commended responding firefighters for their commitment, courage, and dedication, highlighting that their fast action saved roughly two-thirds of the entire complex from damage. Complex owners declined to comment to reporters while emergency operations were ongoing.