Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has de­fend­ed its de­ci­sion to seek a de­ten­tion or­der un­der the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE) against a Tu­na­puna man with­out first ar­rest­ing him. 

Last Fri­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds is­sued the de­ten­tion or­der for Deshon Ruben, of Main­got Road, Tu­na­puna. 

The or­der claimed that Ruben was al­so known as “Kill Quick” and ac­cused him of be­ing part of the Re­sis­tance Gang and par­tic­i­pat­ing in se­ri­ous crimes, in­clud­ing mur­der and armed rob­bery. 

Ruben was in­ter­viewed by a news­pa­per on Wednes­day be­fore he even­tu­al­ly sur­ren­dered to the po­lice. 

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, act­ing Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Curt Si­mon not­ed that un­der Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions for the SoE, the TTPS can ap­ply for a de­ten­tion or­der with­out first ar­rest­ing a po­ten­tial de­tainee.

“There is no need to re­scind the or­der,” Si­mon said. 

“The reg­u­la­tions make pro­vi­sions for the po­lice to ap­ply for pre­ven­tion de­ten­tion or­ders for per­sons who were prov­ing dif­fi­cult to lo­cate,” he said. 

Deal­ing specif­i­cal­ly with Ruben’s case, Si­mon claimed that of­fi­cers would have sought the or­der af­ter they failed in sev­er­al at­tempts to lo­cate him. 

Un­der reg­u­la­tions, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter can or­der the de­ten­tion of a cit­i­zen if they are sat­is­fied that such ac­tion would pre­vent him from act­ing in any man­ner prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty or pub­lic or­der. 

Once the pre­ven­tive or­der is is­sued, the in­tend­ed de­tainee may be ar­rest­ed by a po­lice of­fi­cer with­out a war­rant. 

In a let­ter sent to act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin on Tues­day, Ruben’s lawyer, Aaron Lewis of Quan­tum Le­gal, ques­tioned the move. 

“It calls in­to ques­tion the pro­ce­dure com­mu­ni­cat­ed by the po­lice to the min­is­ter and the in­for­ma­tion they are re­ly­ing on to process an or­der,” Lewis said. 

In his in­ter­view, be­fore he even­tu­al­ly sur­ren­dered, Ruben claimed that he learnt of the or­der while on a job site on Tues­day. Ruben al­so not­ed that in Jan­u­ary he was charged with pos­ses­sion of a firearm and am­mu­ni­tion and was grant­ed $150,000 bail.

His ar­rest re­port­ed­ly stemmed from a probe in­to a video record­ing de­pict­ing a group of men us­ing a firearm in a forest­ed area in April 2023. 

Ruben, who de­nied be­ing a mem­ber of the gang he was linked with in the or­der, claimed that he was be­ing vic­timised by the po­lice. 

“Po­lice just tar­get­ing me. Life is un­com­fort­able be­cause I am a work­ing man. A young black youth in T&T,” he said.