A Point Fortin father of one claims his home was deliberately burnt down and police officers are ignoring his report.
Jamil Michael said he feared for the lives of his wife and five month-old daughter, as only two weeks before the fire, a female relative had threatened to burn down his home.
On March 20, Michael lost his home and all his belongings at Salick Trace, Gonzales Village, Point Fortin, in a fire,
His pedigree dog, “Jessie,” hundreds of exotic fishes and rabbits being bred as supplemental incomes, were also lost in the blaze.
Michael, a cook at Lenny’s barbeque Hut, of Gonzales Village, estimated his loss to be close to $80,000.
Contacted yesterday, a senior officer in charge at the Guapo Police Station, said he had no knowledge of the incident and referred T&T Guardian to the station’s sergeant, who was not on duty.
Public Information officer of the TTPS, Acting Assistant Supt Michael Pierre, said ideally a citizen should lodge a query with the sergeant of the station, however, in all fairness sometimes the sergeant may not even be aware of said complaint.
He said if still not satisfied then the area’s first division officer should be contacted to highlight the victim’s complaint. He noted that people ought to be given a receipt after making a report.
Pierre, however, said he would look into Michael’s claims to ensure an investigation into the matter.
The on-going family feud, Michael said, was well documented in the Guapo Police Station as the relative had made several allegations against him since 2009.
According to Michael, there are witnesses who saw the suspected arsonist dousing his home with gasoline and setting it ablaze. In fact, Michael claims, he rushed right past the suspect, mere moments after being alerted that his house and a neighbour’s was on fire.
“The young girl who came crying round the corner where I was, said two houses was on fire and she had seen who done it. She said she saw a man throwing a liquid on my home and light it afire. It was only after when the fire truck came, she said the man had walked pass me,” he said.
Fire officers from the Point Fortin Fire division, responded in 15 minutes and was able to save the neighbour’s home. Michael’s four-room wooden structure was completely gutted.
The displaced family have since gotten a temporary home at Warden Road, Point Fortin, after a Good Samaritan offered to help.
Michael said the police have only taken a report from his wife since the incident.
He claimed on the day of the fire he was informed by an officer at the Guapo Police Station that a report should be made the following Tuesday.
However, the day after the blaze, Michael said he related that to a police officer attached to Point Fortin Station who intervened and instructed him to return to the Guapo station.
There, Micheal said, he was treated like the suspect rather than the victim. He said the person he suspected of committing the act was presently in police custody on an unrelated charge.
Valdeen Shears-Neptune