Commissioner of Prisons (Ag.), Mr. Deopersad Ramoutar has condemned the brutal attempted assassination of Deputy Commissioner of Prisons (Ag.), Mr. Sherwin Bruce, by unknown assailants on Wednesday October 11, 2023, at around 7:05am.
Mr. Bruce successfully defended himself by returning fire. However, his driver sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest and was subsequently conveyed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex for treatment.
Commissioner Ramoutar has expressed his anguish over the incident and described it as ‘cowardly’ and ‘unfortunate’.
He has stated, “My officers, we are very resilient and this brazen attack on us will not deter us from doing our duty. We will continue to maintain security and provide and implement strategies and programmes geared towards rehabilitation. There are just two handful of inmates who are undesirables in the Prison Service and I dare say, in society. They are cancerous cells in an organism, and cancerous cells are unwanted cells.”
Continuing, he said, “I am very disappointed given the inroads that my Executive and I have made in reducing tensions between officers and inmates over the past one and a half years. The majority of our inmates, and ex inmates, will detest that cowardly act of attempting to harm any officer. I call upon ex inmates and inmates who have embraced the wave in which the Prison Service is heading, to provide any information to law enforcement officers, or to even do a citizen’s arrest and bring these persons in restraints in front of the Port of Spain Prison gate for the rule of law to take its course. This will send a strong message to those criminal elements whom I described as cancerous cells.”
The Trinidad and Tobago Prison Service is working closely with members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to bring the perpetrators to the fore.