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The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) has ex­pressed deep con­cern over the de­ci­sion by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro not to sus­pend of­fi­cers in­volved in the fa­tal shoot­ing of 31-year-old Joshua Sama­roo dur­ing a high-speed chase in St Au­gus­tine on Jan­u­ary 20. The in­ci­dent al­so left Sama­roo’s com­mon-law wife, Ka­ia Sealy, paral­ysed.

NATUC crit­i­cised the Com­mis­sion­er’s de­ci­sion, not­ing that video footage of the in­ci­dent cir­cu­lat­ing in the pub­lic do­main has raised se­ri­ous ques­tions, in­clud­ing those high­light­ed by the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The union said sus­pen­sion pend­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion is not a de­c­la­ra­tion of guilt but a safe­guard to pre­serve the in­tegri­ty of in­ves­ti­ga­tions, main­tain pub­lic con­fi­dence, and en­sure jus­tice is both done and seen to be done.

“No in­di­vid­ual, no of­fice, and no in­sti­tu­tion can be above the law,” NATUC said. “The crim­i­nal law of Trinidad and To­ba­go ap­plies equal­ly to civil­ians and law-en­force­ment of­fi­cers alike.”