Cops beat TSTT workerBy Akile SimonStory Created: Jul 27, 2010 at 12:50 AM ECTStory Updated: Jul 27, 2010 at 2:40 AM ECTSCORES of angry pedestrians converged on police officers on lower Charlotte Street in Port of Spain yesterday, after the officers beat a man who had reportedly earlier sought assistance for a woman who collapsed along the roadway.The pedestrians surrounded a police vehicle and demanded that Wayne Roberts be released, saying two officers assigned to the Traffic Branch began beating the victim with their batons shortly before 6 p.m. in the yard of Club Nickels, located near Express House on Independence Square.Roberts, a supervisor II with the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), was up to late last evening being treated at the Port of Spain General Hospital for injuries he sustained about the body during the fracas.The incident was recorded by several persons on their cell phones and later posted on the popular YouTube and Facebook websites.A man who only identified himself as H Bernard, and said he was a co-worker of Roberts, told the Express Roberts had stopped to render assistance to the woman, who had collapsed and needed help. He said after Roberts told two policewomen, who were at the time giving a PH taxi driver a ticket, that a woman was in dire need of help, the officers jumped into a waiting vehicle and were about to leave. Incensed by the officers' inaction, Bernard said Roberts walked up to the police vehicle and asked the officers if that was the manner in which they were supposed to protect and serve. He then walked away."As he walked back in here (the yard of Club Nickels) to see the woman, two male officers run out of the vehicle and snatch him and start to beat him about the body. They forget it had an injured woman and continue beating him and throw him inside a police vehicle and beat him again," Bernard said."That whole thing was uncalled for. I can't imagine the man stop to help the woman and ask them for help and that's the treatment he get," a woman shouted."I'm sure they going and say he (Roberts) 'cuss' them (police) and 'cook up' some foolish charges. But the truth is, he did not 'cuss' or assault them. He tell them 'So all yuh does move, like imps? And all yuh say all yuh is to protect and serve and all yuh ain't even taking me on when I say de woman want help'," another eyewitness said of the incident.The lawmen, outnumbered by the angry crowd who blocked the pathway of their vehicle, eventually had to call for back-up. After the commotion died down, angry passers-by literally grabbed the arms of officers assigned to the Repeat Offenders Task Force (ROPTF) and the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF), and took the officers into the yard of the club where the woman, who was only identified as Terryann, was seen lying on a concrete bench. She was placed in a police vehicle and taken to hospital.Up to last evening, the Express was unable to get a comment from officers involved in the incident, as they were said to be still at the hospital with the victim.
