One Million TT Dollar Reward Offered For Info. On Murder Of Former Senator

Murdered minutes from home! – Dana Seetahal, senior counsel and former independent senator of Trinidad & Tobago.

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Mon. May 5, 2014: A one million Trinidad and Tobago dollar reward or just over US$150,000 has been announced for information on the killers of senior counsel and former independent senator Dana Seetahal.

Seetahal was shot to death in her Volkswagen SUV in Woodbrook, Port-Of-Spain just at around 12:05 a.m. yesterday morning, May 4, 2014.

Reports indicate Seetahal was at a casino and was driving in the vicinity of the Woodbrook Youth Facility towards her One Woodbrook Place home  when two vehicles pulled alongside her causing her to come to a stop. One of the vehicles, a Nissan Wingroad, then drove ahead a short distance and pulled across the road, blocking it.

The other vehicle which was described as a panel van pulled alongside and the occupants of that vehicle pulled out their firearms and opened fire on the SUV before both vehicles fled the scene.

Residents of the area, on hearing the gunshots contacted the police and emergency health services. They found the attorney-at-law slumped along her driver’s seat dead.

“It’s shocking. Crime is a concern especially violent crime. It’s a shocking incident, one you least expect. “I had a conversation with her at around 12.45 pm on Saturday and everything was fine. “We need to work as a country together,” Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams said.

An autopsy report in pending.

Seetahal was formerly a lecturer at the Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad and Tobago, where she held the position of Course Director in Criminal Practice and Procedure. She was first appointed to Parliament in April 2002 as an Independent Senator in the 7th Republican Parliament. She was again appointed an Independent Senator in the 8th and 9th Parliaments (October 2002 and December 2007).

She was not re-appointed to the 10th Parliament. In January 2006 she was made Senior Counsel. Her first contribution in the senate was The Appropriation Bill, 2003, which she introduced on October 28, 2002.

In 2008 she opened her own private chambers “El Dorado Chambers” located in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Before being appointed as an Independent Senator, Seetahal also served as a State Prosecutor, Assistant Solicitor General and a Magistrate. She wrote a weekly column for the Saturday Express, having previously written for “The Guardian”, both local newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago.