Inquest clears 9 police officers in Wallerfield killings

A coroner's inquest has concluded that nine Trinidad and Tobago police officers were not negligent in the shooting deaths of five persons at Wallerfield on August 17, 2007.

The inquest was held to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting deaths and whether the policemen acted properly.

A newspaper report on the matter attributed to an internal investigation on the killings said the five victims were unarmed and that the police officers who killed them were hand-picked by a senior policeman who was later found to have ties with murdered drug queen Lily Layne.

It said the Special Branch report noted that the real target was the man believed to be behind Layne's murder and who was mistakenly assumed to be in the car carrying four of the victims.

The five people were shot dead one day after Layne was murdered. Among them was Wendy Courtney, a 40-year-old mother of two, who was killed inside her bedroom by a stray police bullet from the shooting in the road.

The four men in the car, Lincoln Forde, Glen Liverpool, Jordan Charles, and Hayden Goddard, were all shot dead with assault rifles.

The officers involved in the shooting were dressed in black clothes, wore masks and were armed with heavy weapons, including Galil assault rifles, the Trinidad Express reported in 2008.

It said "forensic information about whether the victims had gunpowder residue on their hands, which would indicate whether they had fired guns at the police, was missing from the original file."

Read the Trinidad Express story: Fatal blunder

Coroner Gail Gonzales said she relied heavily on the evidence presented to the court by pathologist Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris and scientific officer Derrick Sankar, whose evidence supported the officers' story that they acted in self defence. She said she rejected the evidence of one civilian witness because it was "inconsistent and lacked credibility".

She said DNA evidence submitted revealed that Charles was seated in the front passenger seat, Liverpool behind him and Goddard was behind the driver. She said the evidence suggested that Charles was shooting at the police with a high-powered weapon.

Israel Khan, who appeared on behalf of the policemen, criticised the Trinidad Express report (cited above), calling it unfounded and malicious. He said the actions of the officers was a clear case of self-defence.

The police report on the case said the officers were "on enquiry at the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, Agua Santa Drive, Wallerfield, when they intercepted a Nissan Almera car with four men. There was an exchange of gunfire and four people sustained injuries. A stray bullet reportedly hit Courtney who was in her bedroom."