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The home of a prison officer is riddled with bullets.

The officer who was said to be at his house at the time was shot once in his hand.

The incident is said to have taken place at the officer’s home in Eldorado some time last evening.

At a press conference yesterday the Prison Officers Association President Cerron Richards, says there is a plot to kill 13 officers.

He is calling for an urgent meeting with head of the National Security Council Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley.

Mr. Richards says the association has lost confidence in the promises of successive Ministers of National Security to protect its members.

Speaking at press conference yesterday Mr. Richards said nothing else would suffice but a meeting with Dr. Rowley.

His demand follows Sunday’s death of officer Nigel Micheal Jones who was gunned down in the presence of his daughter in Siparia

Mr. Richards also said the morale of prison officers is low as the country is at war with the criminal elements.

Meanwhile Deputy Commissioner of Police Macdonald Jacob says a police vehicle was in pursuit of the assailants who killed the prison officer.

He says contrary to what is being shown on social media the police were in pursuit of the gunmen.

The Deputy Commissioner was speaking at a news conference yesterday.

Retired police officer shoots and kills 2 bandits in Morvant.

The identities of the men have not yet been released.

Reports say the incident took place at a bar at Matapal Street on Lady Young Avenue around 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

Newscenter 5 understands the men went in to the establishment and announced a hold up.

It is said a retired police officer that was at the bar saw the incident and responded.

The men attempted to flee and fired at the officer who returned fire with his service weapon hitting both men.

They died at the scene.

Investigations are ongoing.

Fully vaccinated persons are being told to get ready for a third dose.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says his Ministry has been observing the behavior of the coronavirus worldwide and took a proactive approach knowing that a booster would be needed at some point.

He says for the past 3 weeks a booster program has been in the making at the Ministry as there is now vaccine stock to implement it.

Minister Deyalsingh says now that there is a new variant; a 3^rd dose is available for everyone.

He says last weekend’s acquisition of vaccines has placed the State in a better position to administer a 3^rd dose.

Health Minister Deyalsingh says his Ministry’s planning ahead has placed the population in a better position to face the new Omicron variant.

He was speaking yesterday during the virtual COVID-19 update.  

The country records 19 additional COVID related deaths taking the toll to 2,134.

The Ministry of Health says the deceased are 8 elderly men, 7 elderly women, 1 middle-aged man and 3 middle aged women.

The Ministry says 9 persons had multiple comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes, heart and kidney disease, obesity and asthma.

It says 8 persons had 1 comorbidity hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or a psychiatric condition.

2 persons had no known comorbidities.

An additional 462 persons have contracted the virus.

The country’s active caseload now stands at 10,558.

A prison officer and two teens are among four people killed mere hours apart.

The killings occurred in Laventille and Siparia yesterday afternoon.

In Laventille the victims are identified Jevon Smith, Josiah Francis and Anthony Bacchus.

Jevon and Josiah was both 17-years-old.

Mr. Bacchus was 32-years-old.

The incident occurred at Desperlie Crescent around 1:30 yesterday afternoon.

Residents say they heard rapid gunfire and went to investigate.

Upon checking they found 6 men bleeding from gun shot wounds.

The police were contacted and officers rushed the 6 bleeding men to hospital where Jevon, Josiah and Mr. Bacchus died while receiving treatment.

The other 3 men are listed in stable condition.

Hours later Prison Officer, Nigel Michael Jones, was killed in a drive by shooting in Siparia his 6-year-old daughter, who was standing with him, was not injured.

Video footage circulating on social media shows the child running off screaming, as her father lay on the ground dead.

A passerby comforted her until relatives arrived and took her away.

Reports are Mr. Jones and his daughter were standing on the stand at the corner of High Street and Siparia Old Road, Siparia, at around 3 pm when a car pulled up next to them.

Occupants fired several shots towards him from the car, killing him on the spot.

And the body of a man was discovered in Belmont.

He is yet to be identified

The find was in a drain along Maryland Hill.

The cause of death has not yet been determined.

An autopsy is expected to be performed.

Anyone with information is being told to contact Belmont Police.

Government extends the deadline for the submission of the Property Tax Valuation Return form to January 31^st, 2022.

The announcement was made in a public notice that was addressed to every person in possession of residential land, commercial land, agricultural land or a combination of any of the above (mixed use) with or without buildings in the country.

The notice pointed out that under section 32 of the Valuation of Land Act, failure to submit the form constitutes a criminal offence that is punishable by a fine of $5,000.

The notice also advised property owners that they are not to include original documents when submitting their completed forms via drop box.

According to the public notice the property owners will be contacted when the return has been processed and provided with a Property Identification Number (PIN) assigned to the property.

It said each property would be assigned one pin.

Earlier this month the Confederation of Regional Business Chambers called on the government to consider an extension on the submission of the property tax forms beyond November 30^th.

It said there can be criminal liabilities or a penalty if these forms are not filed by November 30^th, and urged government to consider the request to extend the deadline as an urgent matter.

The country records an additional 25 COVID related deaths.

The death toll to now stands at 2,115.

The Health Ministry says the deceased are 13 elderly men, 3 elderly women, 6 middle-aged men, and 3 middle-aged women.

It said 16 of these people had multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, asthma, lung disease, and a history of strokes.

Five people had a single comorbidity diabetes, dementia, or hypertension, while four people had no known medical condition.

The Ministry says 456 new infections were also recorded taking the active caseload to 10,477.

It says there are 543 patients in hospital, with 20 in the Intensive Care Unit and 31 in the High Dependency Unit.

It says there are 158 patients in step-down facilities, 82 people in State quarantine and 9,304 people in home self-isolation.

The Ministry said that 90.9% of patients in the Parallel Healthcare System were unvaccinated.

Fire officials are expected to return to scene of the fire at the Express House in Port of Spain today to determine the cause of the blaze.

Persons had to be evacuated from the building yesterday after a fire broke out at the D-Drinks Outlet.

Fire officials say at around 4.30 pm they received a call that smoke had been observed coming from the building.

Tenders from the Wrightson Road headquarters responded.

Personnel in the building were evacuated.

There were no reports of injuries.

Fire officers cut the electricity supply to the building and advised that its backup generator powers should not be used until all checks were completed.

This led to the cancellation of the TV6 news last night, as well as other operations being affected.

There was no official determination on how the fire started.

Government revokes the June 2021 Commissioner of Police selection process order, as well as the 2009 order as it establishes a new process for the selection of the Police Commissioner.

They have been replaced with a new revised order, titled Legal Notice 277 of November 25^th, 2021 Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police selection process order.

This new order makes very clear the process for appointing someone to act as Commissioner of Police and the process for appointing a substantive Commissioner of Police.

In both instances the nominations in respect of the 2 positions must come to Parliament for its approval.

The order, which also provides for the appointment of an acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and substantive DCP, also stipulates that these nominations receive Parliament’s endorsement.

Paragraph 4 of the June 2021 as well as the 2009 order was deemed by Justice Nadia Kangaloo in October to be inconsistent with the constitution because they did not stipulate that the acting appointments for the position of Commissioner of Police had to come to Parliament.

The new order also makes it clear that the Acting Commissioner must be a Deputy Commissioner of Police or an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

It does not make provision for anyone on contract or who was previously on contract to act as Commissioner of Police, as the previous order did, a provision which was widely thought to have been drafted to favor Gary Griffith, who had been on contract.

That provision is now repealed and there is no room for an Acting Commissioner on contract.