Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) says it is ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the shoot­ing death of Shari­da Ali.

In a brief re­sponse to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, deputy di­rec­tor of the PCA Michelle Solomon-Baksh said in­ves­ti­ga­tors have al­ready vis­it­ed the scene.

The 36-year-old moth­er of two was killed while in the kitchen of her friend’s Nine­teenth Street, Beetham Gar­dens, home last Sat­ur­day. Po­lice said around 6 pm, Ali had just fin­ished hav­ing a meal with her friend and her fam­i­ly when she went to the kitchen to add ice to her drink. While in the kitchen, she was shot once in the head and col­lapsed.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers were en­gaged in a shootout with al­leged car thieves. Po­lice said they re­cov­ered one spent 5.56 shell and four 9 mm shells fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent.

On Sun­day PCA di­rec­tor David West said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion was im­me­di­ate­ly launched. It was West, who in 2022, sub­mit­ted a re­port to Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard ad­vis­ing that po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved in the shoot­ing death of Beetham res­i­dent Or­nel­la Greaves be crim­i­nal­ly charged.

The mat­ter is on­go­ing as po­lice of­fi­cers are con­duct­ing a sep­a­rate probe.

On June 30, 2020, Greaves, 30, was shot dur­ing a con­fronta­tion be­tween po­lice and pro­test­ers at Beetham Gar­dens. She was part of the protests that fol­lowed the po­lice shoot­ing of Joel Ja­cob, Is­rael Clin­ton and Noel Di­a­mond in Mor­vant three days pri­or.

At the time of the shoot­ing, Greaves was three months preg­nant. She was shot in the ab­domen.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at her Beetham Gar­dens home on Mon­day, An­nette Greaves said Ali’s killing re­mind­ed her of her daugh­ter’s death. She lament­ed that near­ly five years lat­er, she is yet to re­ceive jus­tice for her daugh­ter and called on Ali’s fam­i­ly to trust in God.

“All I want to tell her, hold on and cry out to God, and jus­tice will be served. No mat­ter how long it takes, it will be served, be­cause you know why? I be­lieve in God, and I want you to do the same thing. There is noth­ing for God that is im­pos­si­ble. All things are pos­si­ble!”

She was crit­i­cal of the length of time it took for in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to po­lice shoot­ings to come to an end.

“I say, like, she (Or­nel­la) is for­got­ten boy, be­cause, like, no­body ain’t com­ing back up with this. But, as I say, I put God first in every­thing, be­cause I know He’s the giv­er, and He’s the tak­er. I leave every­thing in the hands of God.”