T&T Minister’s son surrenders in ‘planassing’ incident

(Trinidad Express) The son of Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh spent last night in police custody after he surrendered to officers of the Port of Spain Criminal Investigations Department (CID), in connection with an incident which took place at a doubles stand outside Brooklyn Bar in Woodbrook two weeks ago.

Police said the suspect walked into the station yesterday accompanied by his attorney Ravi Rajcoomar and was being questioned by detectives up to press time last night.

A video recording of a man planassing Gregory Wight, 56, chief executive officer of Stuart Brothers, an export company located in Cocorite, was posted on Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites days after the incident occurred. The video shows a man walking up to Wight, who was purchasing doubles at the time, and hitting him twice to the leg with the flat side of a cutlass. Gopeesingh has since identified the man in the video as his son.

Last Tuesday, ASP Ajith Persad was appointed as lead investigator in the matter. Statements from Wight and several witnesses have already been recorded and police said they are expecting assault charges to be laid against the suspect sometime this week.