(Trinidad Express) Police officers who kicked in a door to arrest a man in his bed are claiming he fired a shot at them during a raid on his Carapichaima home on Wednesday.
It is why, the officers said, that they returned fire and killed Kern Fraser, 33, and his female companion, Sheckeela Davis, 28, who was sleeping beside him.
The police only knew the woman was there when they lifted a blanket and found her bleeding to death.
The families of the dead couple are disputing every part of the story told by the officers, who are members of the Central CID Operations, Freeport CID and Central Division Task Force—Area North.
Relatives said the two victims were killed without offering any resistance, and that no one fired at the police.
The relatives said Fraser had no gun, and that the raid was connected to a personal vendetta.
They said the case had to be investigated by the Professional Standards Bureau and Police Complaints Authority.
The police officers involved in the raid said they first went to a house at Mungal Trace, Orangefield Road, at 4.10 a.m. and arrested a suspect.
They then went to Fraser’s home at the corner of Coconut Drive and Waterloo Road. Fraser lived in a ground-floor bedroom of a house also occupied by two brothers.
Police say they shouted “police” and entered the bedroom by breaking through the wooden door.
The police claimed Fraser, who was in bed, pointed a gun and fired.
The official police report is that the “suspect whilst laying on a bed inside the said room pointed an object resembling that of a firearm in the direction of the police party and a bright flash was seen followed by a loud explosion, the party of officers was of the opinion that their lives was in immediate harm, injury or possible death and in accordance with the TTPS use of force policy discharged several rounds of ammunition in the direction of the said man”.
They then approached Fraser and allegedly took a gun found next to his hand.
On removing the blanket, police said they found Sheckeela Davis who they had shot multiple times.
Both were taken to hospital, where they died.
Relatives’ version
A close relative said police arrived at the house shortly after 4 a.m., where Fraser and Davis were asleep in the bedroom.
“It had other people in the house. Everyone in the house wake up when they hear the shots. The police ain’t say ‘police’, nothing,” said the relative.
A second relative said that contrary to the police report, it was a single police vehicle that came to the house in Carapichaima.
“(It) was one jeep come here first when this happened. It was Chaguanas police because we know all of them. All kind of report they giving. All kind of statement they giving. All kind of cover up thing. The police kill them and they put them in the (vehicle).
“They come back, when you see they come back with some bag with something and bawling he had a gun. All of that. If he had a gun and they say he fire shot, where the shot fire?” the relative said.
The relatives said when they tried to see what had taken place, they were told by the police to not come close to the scene and were not allowed to see the bodies.
Another relative said that the killings were prompted by earlier events.
“Some bacchanal Kern had with some of the fellas up the road and the police does lime with these fellas. They (police) kill he (Kern) because of some bacchanal that Kern with one of the fellas girl.
“These policemen them very dangerous in the area. They (police) does lie. They making up all kind of story. These police like to drink and lime. Before this, them same police were drinking by a bar up the road whole night,” said the relative.
The relative added that the police took Fraser’s phone and wallet.
When the relatives were allowed into the bedroom, they noted two bullet holes in the wall, and the blood-soaked mattress.
The relatives said the officers were not wearing body cameras, and did not show a search warrant before entering the property.
Another relative who lived on the compound said: “He (Fraser) used to give a little trouble but to say he will shoot the police first, nah. He was kinda coward a little bit. The girl (Davis) get ten shots and Kern get 11. He leave here dead.”
Fraser’s relatives shared that he was the father of two children—a ten-year-old boy, and seven-year-old girl who lived with their mother at her home in Carapichaima.
His relatives also shared that Davis lived with her father and three children, aged four, nine and 11, at Orangefield, Carapichaima. She was a hairdresser.
The Express reached out to Davis’s mother and sister, but they declined to comment.
Forty people have been killed by police this year to date.
