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THE police officers who killed five unarmed people in Wallerfield one year ago were hand-picked by a senior policeman who was later found to have ties with murdered drug queen Lily Layne.
And, according to a Special Branch report into the killings, the real target was the man believed to be behind Layne's murder and who was mistakenly assumed to be in the car carrying four of the victims.
The five were shot dead one day after Layne was murdered. Among them was Wendy Courtney, a 40-year-old mother of two, who was killed inside her bedroom by a stray police bullet from the shooting in the road. The four others were men travelling in a car - Lincoln Forde, 27, Glen Liverpool, 48, Jordan Charles, 17, and Hayden Goddard, 44.
The shocking revelation about the relationship between murdered drug baroness Lily Layne and the senior officer believed to be behind the killings was unearthed by the Special Branch who became involved in the issue following protests outside President's House, Circular Road, St Ann's in the weeks following the killings on August 17, 2007.
According to sources, that report is now "collecting dust" at Special Branch headquarters at Richmond Street, Port of Spain.
Forde, Liverpool, Charles and Goddard were all shot dead with assault rifles at Jacob Hill, around 5.30 p.m. after police stopped Forde's blue Nissan Almera, PBS 1628.
The officers involved in the shooting were dressed in black clothes, wore masks and were armed with heavy weapons, including Galil assault rifles.
Five months after the inquest was ordered the matter is yet to come up at the Arima Magistrate's Court.
On June 24 this year, ten months after the killings took place, Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson ordered a coroner's inquest.
This after he had to send back the original file to the police on November 13 last year for further investigations.
Forensic information about whether the victims had gunpowder residue on their hands, which would indicate whether they had fired guns at the police, was missing from the original file.
When the DPP sent back the file, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes gave investigators one week to re-submit the file.
It took police all of seven months to complete it. On June 6 this year, it was re-sent to DPP Henderson - seven months after the one-week deadline.
The forensic report confirmed that none of the men had gunpowder residue on their hands.
The officers involved had claimed that they were chasing the car carrying the four men when they were fired at.
However, autopsy results and photographs of the car seem to support eyewitness accounts that they were not being chased and that two of them, Charles and Goddard, had been killed by guns aimed directly at them from in front of the vehicle. They were shot in the front of the head and chest. There were no bullet holes in the back of the car, only through the front windscreen.
Eyewitnesses told the police that the Almera was heading west on the fast lane and had stopped close to the median of the road, opposite Agua Santa Junction, Jacob Hill, when the shooting started. Investigators found no evidence of brake impressions on the road to suggest that the car had come to a quick and forced stop.
An eyewitness who spoke to the Express following the killings said a police vehicle was parked lower down from the junction and stopped the car as it approached.
Charles and Goddard were shot and killed in the car while Liverpool and Forde were shot in a dasheen patch in a drain alongside the road.
Forde was the driver and Liverpool sat directly behind him, giving both men the chance to run out of the vehicle when it stopped.
Eyewitnesses said that Forde and Liverpool, who had fled the car, were killed by officers who had pulled up behind the Almera in a pick-up van after the shooting started.
Their bodies were still wet when the dead men were taken to the Arima hospital.
The bedroom of the fifth victim, Wendy Courtney, was in the direct line of the bullets fired by the police who shot at Liverpool and Forde.
No guns were ever found in the Almera or on any of the men.
The police officers involved in the killings were selected from different police stations in the Northern Division and, according to the Special Branch report, were instructed to look for the man believed to be behind Layne's killing, Shawn 'Sawood' Allen, who was himself murdered in February.
Branch investigators concluded that the Almera was targeted because Allen was mistakenly believed to be in the car.
One of the victims, Lincoln Forde, was an associate of Allen, who was a member of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen.
Allen and Layne fell out in August 2005 after 14-year-old Anisha Simon was shot dead at the Simple Song panyard on Pinto Road, Arima.
Homicide detectives said Simon was killed by a relative of Layne, who decided to shoot up the panyard to show off a machine gun bought for him by Layne. There were several revenge and reprisal killings between Layne and Allen, which ended with her murder.
Forde had a subcontract to build houses at Jacob Hill. Liverpool, Charles and Goddard worked for him.
Forde went to Jacob Hill to pay them and ended giving the trio a ride back home, as they all lived close by.
Charles, who was a drummer for his church, was working to get money to buy his school's graduation suit, while it was the first time that Liverpool had worked for Forde.
Goddard, a farmer, took the job at Jacob Hill for the extra money.
