THE Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has refuted a newspaper article claiming that a laptop has gone missing as investigators probe the murder of attorney Randall Hector, who was killed as he left a church service on Old Year’s night.
“The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) wishes to address claims made in a recent article in the Sunday Express titled “Missing Laptop Mystery in Hector’s Murder.” The TTPS is refuting these claims of a missing laptop.
“The investigation into the murder of Randall Hector is being actively pursued by officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations,” the TTPS said in its statement.
Hector, 43, who had been attached to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for 10 years, before moving to the Office of the Attorney General and later into private practice, had still being contracted to represent the State in both criminal and civil matters.
Hector was gunned down on Old Year’s night, as he walked out of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church, with his wife and two young children.
Media reports said that as Hector and his wife, among others, walked to their respective vehicles upon conclusion of the service, two vehicles pulled alongside Hector’s car and occupants opened fire on him, hitting him squarely in the chest. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Sunday Express reported that the laptop belonging Hector, which may contain clues that could assist the police in solving his murder, has gone missing and that investigators are yet it which they believe may provide vital clues into his assassination.
The paper said that senior intelligence sources familiar with the investigation and Hector’s murder stated that days after the incident on December 31, 2024, Strategic Services Agency (SSA) employees arrived at Hector’s residence and removed his password-protected laptop.
“The laptop was taken to the SSA for safekeeping; however, sources say a few weeks later, one of the employees who had been in charge of removing the laptop from his home left the employment of the SSA. Since then, the laptop has not been found, and sources say the SSA has “neither confirmed nor denied” its whereabouts or absence,” the newspaper reported.
But in its statement, the TTPS said it wishes to advise the public that “updates on this and other investigations should be sourced only from official statements provided by the Corporate Communications Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service through authorized channels.” (CMC)
