THE Special Operations Response Team (SORT) – the brainchild of ex-police commissioner Gary Griffith which was led by Supt Roger Alexander – was disbanded after the police executive reviewed two files regarding SORT officers' role in the deaths of two men who were detained in relation to the murder of court clerk Andrea Bharatt.
This was confirmed by Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Mc Donald Jacob when contacted on Sunday on a newspaper report into the the disbanding of SORT which has been replaced by an entity to be known as the National Operational Task Force (NOTF).
Jacob said while there were plans in play to re-organise some of the 20-plus units within the TTPS, it was only after the two files on the deaths of detainees Andrew "Solo" Morris and Joel Belcon, that a firm executive decision was made to re-organise SORT.
“So what I want to tell you is that after the Police Complaints Authority submitted their findings along with their recommendations, and also intelligence information from our international partners; a decision was made by the executive of the police service in the latter part of the year, to deal with the dismantling and setting up a new entity to continue carrying out some of the work that was done by SORT,” Jacob said.
Asked who the international partners, whose report influenced the executive were, he said he could not say only that they are “international support partners.” Asked what the report was about, Jacob said it was in relation to the deaths of Morris and Belcon.
Both men were deemed suspects in the kidnapping and death of 22-year-old Bharatt. The court clerk disappeared on January 29, 2021 and her body was found in the Heights of Aripo on February 4 of that year.
Both men died while in police custody after they were arrested by SORT on January 31, 2021.
[caption id="attachment_939603" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Former police commissioner Gary Griffith, left, and Supt Roger Alexander, head of the now disbanded Special Operations Response Team (SORT). -[/caption]
Morris died at hospital the following day and Belcon eight days later. Police claimed both men needed to be “subdued,” while they were being detained. Morris supposedly was “acting violently" when he was arrested while Belcon, police said, tried to escape.
Then CoP Gary Griffith attributed a fall from a chair for the death of one of the men. According to a report in The Newsday, dated February 3, 2021, Griffith said: "The man was in custody and he was offered something to eat by the police but he refused.
"He was placed in a chair when he fell. The officers acted swiftly and took him to the hospital where he died."
Jacob said the police investigations into the deaths of the men is nearing an end, with a file already at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, for consideration on possible charges.
Jacob said the decision to form the NOTF was to avoid neglecting the work that SORT was doing.
He added that the organisational structure of the police service was changed so that NOTF w
