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.
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.
In 2023, there were 577 known homicides in T&T.
In 2024, there has now been at least 625.
Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal reserved judgment in the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) appeal over a request by political activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj for information on wiretapping by the agency.
Appellate Judges heard legal arguments yesterday from SSA attorney, former head of the SSA legal department Randall Hector, and Maharaj’s legal team led by Anand Ramlogan, SC.
In 2017, Maharaj requested disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the number of interceptions of citizens’ private communication were conducted by the SSA without warrants from a judge.
He also asked for the number of international training courses the staff attended.
The SSA refused to provide the information on the grounds that it would breach national security.
Maharaj brought judicial review proceedings challenging the SSA’s failure to disclose the information under his FOIA request.
Hector argued that the SSA could not disclose the information, as it was bound by a strict code of secrecy and confidentiality.
Ramlogan countered that the SSA was funded by taxpayers and must be held accountable in the interest of transparency and good governance.
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.
Content by : Rickie Ramdass
