Police take an oath to protect and serve the people but some officers of the Mayaro Police Station strayed far from their moorings when they refused to investigate a near fatal shooting and robbery of a fisherman in their district and then allegedly covered up their tracks when the victim tried to re-open the case.
The pain and frustration of Anthony Laing is etched in his voice as he related how his quest for justice ended in a lifetime of anguish as every door he knocked on for help, including the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), Commissioner of Police (CoP) Gary Griffith and the Attorney General, was shut in his face.
In May, the PCA concluded that it could not locate Laing's file in the police records and closed its enquiry but recommended to the CoP that efforts be made to find it "to bring closure to same."
He sent a WhatsApp message to Griffith on October 19, 2019 seeking help but did not get a reply and a letter to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi on October 16, 2016 was not acknowledged.
Laing now intends to petition the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, to use his office to once again re-open the case in a wider probe to find out why so many officers conspired to deny him justice.
Laing spent most of his working life working as a driller on oil rigs in the Middle East, India and other countries.
He invested his money in a mini-mart, internet cafe and three fishing boats which he leased out. He also had a business partner who operated the other businesses while he was overseas and lost everything and now survives on the generosity of his sister.
Laing, 55, a father of six, recounted the events of March 23, 2015, with vivid detail during an interview with Sunday Newsday, when a gunman pounced on him at the Guayaguayare Fishing Port.
He said around 10 pm as he was getting ready to take boxes of fish to be sold in Port of Spain a man he had seen before in the village came up from behind, unmasked, and armed with a gun.
Laing said as he turned around the man stepped back and pointed a gun in his face and ordered him to "pass the money." He said he was able to recognise the man as they were standing under a street light.
As he reached into his left trousers pocket to take out money, he was shot.
"I was real close to the gun because gunpowder burn me in the face. The bullet enter the inner part of my right leg, about an inch below my hip and it ruptured the gland in my leg and burst every vein in my leg."
Laing said as he slumped to the ground he thought to himself "it's all over." The gunman, he said, stepped on his neck with one foot and snatched off a gold bracelet from his left hand and told him he was sent by a woman (name called) to kill him but wanted him to suffer first.
The victim said as the crowd of people on the fishing port rushed to the scene, one of his female friends begged the gunman to leave him alone as she thought Laing was already dead, and the gunman fired a shot in the air causing the crowd to scamper.
Laing said shortly before the incident, a
