(Trinidad Express) Camille Daniel died a hero. This was the sentiment expressed by Daniel’s husband, Lance Cpl Stanley Nottingham, and acting Police Commissioner James Philbert. Surrounded by his colleagues from the Defence Force at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Thursday, Nottingham hailed his wife’s actions as courageous. “My wife was courageous to do what she did… She died trying to save her friend,” he said. “Those who killed her were cowards,” Nottingham said, as he awaited the results of the autopsy on his wife’s body. Asked if he believed justice would be done, Nottingham said, “One way or the other.”

At a news conference a few hours after the distraught husband spoke, Philbert, too, described Daniel as a hero. “I think that woman was a hero…,” he said. “We do not know what may have happened to her if she was taken elsewhere, and I think, she did what she thought was best. Perhaps if officers were in the yard at the time, they may have been able to avoid the situation.”

Daniel was on her way to pick up her husband on Wednesday when she made a detour at Factory Road in Diego Martin to drop off lunch for a female friend just before 2 pm. The two were sitting in Daniel’s gold Nissan Almera car when three men jumped in the back and ordered her to drive to Rich Plain.