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Author Topic: Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police  (Read 1433 times)

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Offline Bakes

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Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police
« on: January 29, 2015, 02:07:22 PM »
Benjai lucky to be alive, should be charged (Trinidad Express)


By Alexander Bruzual
January 29, 2015

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Ser­vice Social and Welfare Associa­tion (TTPSSWA) is of the opinion soca artiste Benjai (Rodney Le Blanc) should be charged for his role in allegedly breaching a police escort along the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway on Sunday.

According to police sources, a vehicle breached a police escort which was transporting President Anthony Carmona. As a result, offi­cers in one of the police vehicles in the escort were said to have fired shots at the vehicle, in order to bring it to a stop.

Association officials, in an inter­view yesterday on i95.5fm, said based on information from enquiries they made, Le Blanc was allegedly tailing the escort service from Port of Spain, and upon reaching Aranjuez, the officers shot at the tyre of the car.

According to TTPSSWA president Anand Ramesar, the officers were well within their rights to do so, and
he was of the opinion an inves­tiga­tion must be launched and Le Blanc should be charged.

“The association, from the onset, has been approaching this investi­gation with a lot of caution. And from enquiries we made with our membership on what happened that
particular day, we are sufficiently clear in our minds that the police would have acted correctly and would have also acted with restraint, actually, and we have taken the position that a full investigation should be conducted in this matter, with a view to laying criminal charges against those responsible...those who would have breached the secu­rity escort on that particular day,” Ramesar said.

General secretary Michael Seales said the persons in the car were lucky to be alive as in other countries, those persons may have been killed for their actions.

“The President of this country was being escorted at that point in time and these officers, the ones who are escorting him, are trained to shoot into the car at a chest level, in order to neutralise any targets who could potentially be a threat to the dignitary who is being escorted at that point in time,” said Seales.

“So hats off to them (the police escort), I mean, these officers did breach their training protocol, but at the same time, today, the persons who may have suffered in that regard are now alive to tell the story. In other countries, in those same cir­cumstances, those persons would have been dead men. But it is fortunate that the officers did not take the hard-line approach to their training as it would have been a devastating blow to the soca industry.”

At the time, Le Blanc was coming from the Soca Monarch qualifying competition at the Queen’s Park Savanna in Port of Spain.

The incident was captured by a passenger in his car and uploaded to
social media where it has since gone viral.

At the police news briefing yesterday, public information officer Supt Joanne Archie indicated an investigation had been initiated on the report.

Offline Bakes

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Re: Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2015, 02:09:07 PM »
Saw video that someone in the car took... they were speeding behind the escort but travelling a good 100-200 feet behind.  They slowed when they saw the police vehicle stop up ahead, then without warning shots were fired.  Not surprising that the police trying to cover for their own on this one.

Offline Socapro

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Re: Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2015, 05:01:48 PM »
Saw video that someone in the car took... they were speeding behind the escort but travelling a good 100-200 feet behind.  They slowed when they saw the police vehicle stop up ahead, then without warning shots were fired.  Not surprising that the police trying to cover for their own on this one.

Based on your astute observation and the fact that Benjai was not even driving the car he was in (as he was sitting in the back seat), why are they trying to charge Benjai for committing some trumped up crime after nearly innocently taking his life?

If they are going to do that then this is another sign that our country is now being run by a bunch of criminal bandits that possibly also include our President.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2015, 05:10:35 PM by Socapro »
De higher a monkey climbs is de less his ass is on de line, if he works for FIFA that is! ;-)

Offline Bakes

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Re: Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2015, 05:15:27 PM »
The driver was being in imps, no doubt... trying to draft in behind the escort.  That being said they trying to hype up this "threat" talk... please.  Police was on a cowboy scene... not to hold up the US as some paragon of policing, but at least here you have to account for every bullet fired.  In Trinidad man does still shoot "warning shot" into the air, like they never heard of "falling" bullets.

And on top of that is Benjai name getting call.  Like one ah mih friends on FB say, he need ah bush bath lol

Offline Socapro

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Re: Car Carrying Benjai Shot at by Police
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2015, 12:40:05 AM »
Lucky escape for Benjai
Jensen La Vende (T&T Guardian)
Published: Thursday, January 29, 2015


Rodney "Benjai" Le Blanc during a performance on Sunday at the Soca Monarch semifinals.
Le Blanc’s vehicle was shot at by police attached to the President’s detail along the Churchill–Roosevelt Highway. PHOTO: ABRAHAM DIAZ


Soca artiste Rodney “Benjai” Le Blanc is lucky to be alive sources at the President’s House said yesterday after they confirmed the car in which he was a passenger  was shot at because it was allegedly following the President’s escort along the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway,  Aranguez, San Juan, on Sunday.
 
According to the source, Le Blanc’s car was dangerously close to the escort detail which was taking acting President Timothy Hamel-Smith to the airport where he was to meet with President Anthony Carmona, who was returning from Bolivia. At one point, one of the police vehicles in the detail slowed down and a policemen leaned out and fired shots at the vehicle in which Le Blanc was.
 
One of the bullets reportedly blew out one of the vehicle’s tyres and the driver was forced to stop. The police vehicle did not stop and another police vehicle arrived on the scene later. The police who arrived in that vehicle took no action in the matter. The entire incident was caught on video and was subsequently posted on social media. Le Blanc suffered minor injuries in the incident.
 
Yesterday, both the source at President’s House and the police claimed Benjai was not only lucky to be alive but could face possible charges arising out of the incident. But in a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Le Blanc’s attorney Keith Scotland said the comment that his client was lucky to be alive was a “rather unfortunate” one, since his client has another side of the story.
 
Scotland said he would return to T&T on Saturday and would be taking instructions from Le Blanc before sharing their side of the story. “We are not afraid of anything and we are not going to run away from any charges. The police can do what they will and we will do what we must within the law,” Scotland said when told his client was facing possible charges.
 
Le Blanc was reportedly heading out of Port-of-Spain after performing his 2015 hit Phenomenal in the International Groovy Soca Monarch competition at the Queen’s Park Savannah at the time of the incident. In an interview with i95 FM yesterday, president of the Police Service Welfare Association, Insp Anand Ramesar, said the officer who fired at Le Blanc’s vehicle was within his duty and that the entertainer ought to be charged with a criminal offence.
 
Ramesar was supported by secretary Insp Michael Seales, who said based on investigations, the policeman acted correctly and with restraint, as they are trained to “neutralise” targets deemed to be a threat to state officials by shooting at chest level. He said in any other country Le Blanc would have been a dead man. “Enquiries should be conducted with a view to bring criminal charges against the person who would have breached the escort that day,” Ramesar said.
 
Speaking on his television programme yesterday, vice-president of the Welfare Association, Insp Roger Alexander, also chastised the driver of the vehicle Le Blanc was in. He accused the driver of tailing the escort in an attempt to breach traffic stops and ignoring repeated calls by the police to desist from the action. 
 
Video evidence

In the video, a marked police car is seen driving along the highway near Aranguez when a policeman appears through the left side of the marked sports utility vehicle (SUV) and fires at the car Le Blanc was in. The video ends after the shooting. Contacted yesterday, Le Blanc said he was not ready to disclose what happened but said all would come to light in due course. He denied, however, that he was following the President’s security detail and that the video would make everything clear.
 
Sources close to Le Blanc said the entertainer was upset that the police were attempting to cover their ineptness by making him the scapegoat. The source said the driver of the car Le Blanc was in kept as far away from the police vehicle as possible and they only began filming when the driver in the SUV began driving dangerously and forcing cars off the road, almost causing an accident in the process.

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Reading the last paragraph it looks to me like the police has not been telling the whole truth and that they are now going overboard to make themselves appear as the innocent party by talking about pressing charges against Benjai.
De higher a monkey climbs is de less his ass is on de line, if he works for FIFA that is! ;-)

 

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