Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

A odd fisherman's tale from Trinidad and Tobago

The first headline: Coast Guard Shoots Fisherman:
Shazard Mohammed was a coward who braved fishing at sea during the night to provide an extra income for his wife and infant child, said his relatives.

So when he heard the throbbing engine of a boat approaching in the dark, he reacted as he always did.

He weighed anchor and fled.

Mohammed, 25, of Francis Lalla Road, Charlieville, was chased and shot by a Coast Guard patrol off Trinidad's west coast in a predawn incident yesterday. He is now a patient in the Intensive Care Unit of the Port of Spain General Hospital.

The Coast Guard said yesterday that Mohammed was shot when he rammed their boat.

There were two other people on Mohammed's pirogue.

Mohammed's crewmates, brother-in-law Adesh Ramkissoon, 17, and friend Avinash Ryan, 14, were witnesses to the shooting.

They told police that their boat was hit by the Coast Guard vessel, and Mohammed shot by an officer who boarded the pirogue
The second headline Cops seize Coast Guard gun:
Police officers investigating the shooting of Charlieville fisherman Shazard Mohammed at the Gulf of Paria on Friday night, have seized a gun believed to have been used in the shooting by a Coast Guard officer.

The gun will be taken to the Forensic Science Centre today for a ballistic expert to carry out tests on the weapon as part of the investigation.

One of the two Coast Guard officers quizzed in connection with the shooting of Mohammed underwent a CT scan on Saturday.

He was treated for injuries to the head.
The third headline
Family of fisherman slams Ministry apology
:


The National Security Ministry yesterday apologised to the family of Shazard Mohammed, for issuing a weekend press release reporting that the young fisherman had been killed by Coast Guard officers.

Up to late yesterday, he was still critical at the Intensive Care Unit of the Port of Spain General Hospital.

However, his family has rejected the apology. They also want the ministry to retract the claim that Mohammed was shot because he tried to ram the Coast Guard patrol boat while trying to get away.

The gun used in the shooting was yesterday sent for ballistics tests at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.

Two Coast Guard officers are subjects in the investigation.

Doctors do not believe that Mohammed, 25, will live.

He was shot in the arm and head, in a still not clear incident in the Gulf of Paria in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday.

He was aboard his pirogue with his brother-in-law, Adesh Ramkissoon, 17, and friend Avinash Ryan when the incident occurred.

The ministry said on Saturday that the Coast Guard patrol challenged a suspicious boat that sped off and the vessel was shot at when it tried ramming the patrol. The ministry said Mohammed died.
Clear as mud.

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