Spencer Wan Blog of Wednesday, 1 January 2025
Source: Eric Afatsao
ATTORNEY Randall Hector, a lawyer who was prosecuting a known gang leader was shot and killed on Tuesday night in Port of Spain.
There was an attempt on the gang leader's life outside the Besson Street Police Station on Saturday and the fear of reprisal killings was supposedly a main factor why Government decided to declare a State of Emergency (SoE) on Monday.
During the attempt on the gang leader's life, one of his cohorts was shot and killed.
According to legal sources, Hector, 43, once worked in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) then as a lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General before going into private practice.
He was eventually contracted by the State to prosecute the gang leader as a special prosecutor.
Hector had also done legal work for the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), an elite unit within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), was walking to his car at Stanmore Avenue, Port of Spain when he was shot.
Investigators said Hector was walking towards his car together with his wife and children around 7.30 p.m., after attending a church service when two vehicles, a black SUV and a Nissan B15 pulled up alongside him and opened fire before speeding off.
Hector sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest.
Members of the church took him to the Port of Spain General Hospital, but he was pronounced dead shortly after.
Hector had only minutes before given a sermon at the church where he spoke about the State of Emergency.
In 2023, there were 577 known homicides in T&T.
In 2024, there has now been at least 625.
Hector lived at Irish Avenue, Diego Martin.
He was the Principal Advocate Attorney of R. W. Hector & Associates. He had significant experience, successfully representing Clients before the Magistrates Court, Industrial Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. He was employed with the Attorney General's Office, for over a decade, in the capacity of both a Criminal Law and Civil Law Advocate. He once served as the Director of the Legal Department in the country's legislated Intelligence Agency for several years.