An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is mourn­ing the loss of one of its of­fi­cers fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent at the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion yes­ter­day.

The of­fi­cer, PC Yoha­nis Joseph, died af­ter self-harm­ing at the sta­tion around 2.30 pm, short­ly af­ter re­port­ing for du­ty and col­lect­ing his ser­vice-is­sued firearm.

Po­lice said that an­oth­er of­fi­cer as­signed to the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), who was al­so on du­ty at the sta­tion, sus­tained an in­jury to his foot dur­ing the in­ci­dent and was tak­en for med­ical treat­ment.

The in­ci­dent, which re­port­ed­ly oc­curred in the pres­ence of sev­er­al of­fi­cers, has prompt­ed calls from with­in po­lice cir­cles for a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTPS said it was “deeply sad­dened by the un­for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances” sur­round­ing the of­fi­cer’s death and con­firmed that the mat­ter was en­gag­ing the full at­ten­tion of in­ves­ti­ga­tors in the East­ern Di­vi­sion.

“We ex­tend our heart­felt con­do­lences to the of­fi­cer’s fam­i­ly, col­leagues, and loved ones as they nav­i­gate this painful and un­ex­pect­ed loss,” the state­ment said.

The TTPS al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­cour­age peo­ple ex­pe­ri­enc­ing emo­tion­al or per­son­al dif­fi­cul­ties to seek sup­port.

“This trag­ic event is a solemn re­minder that many among us, of­fi­cers and civil­ians alike, may be car­ry­ing heavy, un­seen bur­dens. Any­one can feel over­whelmed, and no one should face those mo­ments in iso­la­tion,” the state­ment said.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro urged rel­a­tives, friends, neigh­bours and col­leagues to be at­ten­tive to the well-be­ing of those around them.

“Sud­den changes in be­hav­iour, with­draw­al, ex­pres­sions of dis­tress, or signs that some­one is not cop­ing should nev­er be ig­nored. A sim­ple check-in, a con­ver­sa­tion, or an of­fer of sup­port may help save a life,” Gue­var­ro said.

The TTPS added that it re­mains com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of care, com­pas­sion and sup­port with­in the Ser­vice and across the wider com­mu­ni­ty.

News of Joseph’s death sparked an out­pour­ing of grief on so­cial me­dia, with friends and col­leagues ap­peal­ing for re­spect and sen­si­tiv­i­ty to­ward his fam­i­ly.

One close friend urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­frain from spec­u­la­tion as the fam­i­ly mourns.

A mes­sage cir­cu­lat­ed in a What­sApp group com­pris­ing po­lice of­fi­cers al­so called for prayers and sup­port for Joseph’s rel­a­tives dur­ing what was de­scribed as a pe­ri­od of “unimag­in­able grief and loss.”

In Feb­ru­ary this year an of­fi­cer jumped out a win­dow at the San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion. He was se­vere­ly in­jured but sur­vived.