Tips play over: ‘Monster’ begs for return to jail where it is safe

Escaped prisoner Christopher “Monster” Selby spent roughly 54 hours as a free man in Trinidad this weekend. And then he decided life was sweeter in jail and turned himself in at the Barataria Police Station.

Was it the high gas prices, Monster? Did you have a tiff with Mrs Monster? Did you just want to see Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel clinch the CPL Twenty20 title?

Photo: Howzat?! Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel captain Dwayne Bravo celebrates a big scalp. (Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
Photo: Howzat?! Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel captain Dwayne Bravo celebrates a big scalp.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)

Or is it that a 30-year-old man, facing kidnapping and murder charges, prefers to take his chances in a den of cut-throats than on the east-west corridor.

Just ask Hassan Atwell: a 41-year-old former Jamaat-al-Muslimeen attendee whose name habitually popped up as a suspect in kidnapping cases, just over a decade ago. Atwell did ten years in the Port of Spain Prison with a smile—and he has the Facebook photos to prove it.

He could not last 24 hours on the outside.

According to Police Communications official Ellen Lewis, Atwell did not meet his tragic end at the hands of lawmen. But National Security Minister Carl Alfonso was not one to quibble over details.

“I am glad they got him,” Alfonso told the Trinidad Express.

Who is they?

It is usually best not to stare too closely to ‘justice’ in Trinidad. Something like checking out Facebook photos of the girl you met at the club when you were tipsy and only had the benefit of dim lighting.

Atwell was murdered. Does Trinidad and Tobago celebrate murders now?

Photo: Former Hassan Atwell poses for the camera during his good old days as a prison inmate.
Photo: Former Hassan Atwell poses for the camera during his good old days as a prison inmate.

Hands down if you work at CCN. Your votes don’t count anymore. With the number of bloody or lifeless bodies that made it to the Express front page or were shown on loop on TV6 in recent times, it is easy to imagine Ian Alleyne as their managing director.

The Express had an idea about who killed Atwell too.

“Reports are that Atwell was not killed by police,” stated Express reporter Anna Ramdass, “but by members of the ‘Rasta City’ gang.”

Ramdass did not attribute her information to anyone. But consider the implications.

The rivalry between the ‘Rasta City’ and ‘Muslim City’ gangs is well known. However, it kicked off long after Atwell was incarcerated, a decade ago. And there is no evidence of tension between the Carapo Mosque—which is run by Atwell’s father, Hassan Ali, and is said to be one of the Jamaat’s most feared branches—and Rasta City.

So why would Rasta City kill him? Was the gang compelled by a sense of civic duty to strike a blow for law and order? Or was there some other incentive to take on such a potentially incendiary assignment?

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago police on the move. (Courtesy Heritage Radio)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago police on the move.
(Courtesy Heritage Radio)

Who, apart from the police, had great motivation to get Atwell? Did the police sub-contract a hit?

Or, to take another angle, suppose it was not Rasta City?

Its rival, Muslim City, would have heard the news, as well as the Carapo Mosque.

Is there a third group that hopes to ignite a full-scale war between the country’s two most feared gangs? Was Ramdass’ source trying to goad a response from the Carapo Mosque, which has barely uttered a peep since Ali’s sons, Rajaee and Hamid Ali, were arrested for the murder of Dana Seetahal?

Might the Express have considered the implications and at least demanded that a high ranking officer confirm the tip—and attach his or her name to it—before the newspaper casually allowed itself to be used in what might potentially be a deadly game?

Monster arguably realised that there was more in the mortar than the pestle and begged to get his old cell back.

Photo: Allyuh crazy out here yes... Where's my cell?!
Photo: Allyuh crazy out here yes… Where’s my cell?!

Even hardened criminals don’t feel safe on Trinidad and Tobago’s streets anymore. If ignorance is bliss, Trinidad and Tobago is happier than the LGBT community.

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Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.

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62 comments

  1. Now you can read the story over and consider whether, as suggested by Mr Live, the police could be trying to create panic:

  2. LOL…is a good thing this is marked confidential!!! It might have been in space by now if it wasn’t

  3. YES, Lasana, they think we are that dumb!!! If that’s how the police conducts police investigations, now we know why they can’t solve any crimes.

  4. Lasana Liburd u hit the nail on the head with ur 3rd gang theory and if we followed our minister of security comments closely it will justify your theory

  5. To all those who are saying that it makes no sense to get free, enjoy a day or two of freedom and then voluntarily go back to prison, here’s my question: Do you imagine that there was a Plan B and/or Plan C? Plan A almost certainly involved THREE people. In my opinion, although Atwell’s FB post suggested that he was prepared to die because death is better than oppression, the moment Scanny went down, the chances of surrender by the other two – and, therefore, of increased oppression – increased a hundredfold..

  6. And we have Cricket! Buh only when we winnin’ 😉

  7. I’m speculating. But it is hard not to. Hard to catch a sight of justice these days. If we ever really had her in our sights.

  8. I don’t think Selby was a Muslim. The other two were who are both dead.
    I think there is a third gang involved in criminal activity on the street. And that gang claims to protect and serve.
    There has been too much shady behavior to me for it to all be attributed to rasta city and Muslim city. Of which Selby is probably neither btw.
    He was allegedly a kidnapper when it was in style. And those days long gone.

  9. Brilliant! All the right questions asked. Would they be answered?

  10. Amazing ,the monster likes to kill innocent people but fears for his own life . He needs to be hanged asap and stop this wastage of tax payers money and time .

  11. journalists just take info from sources without analysing it and hope to create a sensation tehrby doing more harm than good.where are the editor who will sift that information. to stand up for what is right?

  12. bottom line.we are living in. a police state. why would a fugitive go to hide out among the enemies to be gunned down. why is monster the only one brought in alive ? Cos he is the weakest and will sign any statement the police want him to sign and say anything they want him to say.

  13. Lasana Liburd, you are one of the brilliant minds in T&T media. Move to the class with Raffique Shah and Sunity Maharaj. Your analysis of the news reporter and the photos in the Express should be issues the membership of MATT discuss at conference. Well done!

  14. i say we house the homeless with the prisoners.

  15. yeah, the BBq was getting stale

  16. what prompted the escape? I feel they came out of jail, assassinated Dana and went back into jail

  17. I’ll tell anyone continue your prayer in jail

  18. If I had to guess who shot that officer I would say it was scanny….poor Selby wasn’t even armed when they got out…he mus be take the biggest chain up and realize in less than 3 days he on his own…cuz fellas dat was he pardnas gone against….safest bet was to try to reason with da popo with a lawyer…what he gonna face when he get back inside however…poor he

  19. Oh it’s Ramadan it’s Eid

  20. Na Nicole, they hide behind the religion so that the “authorities” cannot get at them. If yuh only go looking for a criminal ion a Mosque, then the followers of the religion with have an uproar

  21. This to me seems like a case of mis direction.
    Something else has happened in T&T while our attention was focused on POS and these escapees.
    It does not make sense to plan your escape with no clear cut plans of what to do once you are outside.
    Too many unanswered questions…..

  22. He must have had a reason for breaking out and a plan for what he was going to do after.

    I know he didn’t kill that police officer so he could have a few days freedom.

  23. everybody is willing to die for Allah…until called upon to die for Allah

  24. I’m trying to put myself in his shoes. If he was willing to kill in a jail break you would imagine he was prepared to die free, but to turn around at this juncture and change his mind………

  25. LOL…Vernal Damion Cadogan boy….you really don’t understand how these streets out here work AT ALLLLLLLLLLL

  26. Prison safe
    3 sq meals
    TV radio
    Bbq
    Money
    Girls
    Guns

  27. After seeing Hassan get gun down yessssssss

  28. This makes no sense.
    He broke out of prison with his friends killing a police officer in the process then surrenders?

  29. He didnt check the facebook status of his friends…if he did he may have realised they are no longer on his side. 🙂

  30. fellas don’t realise allegiances change over the time yuh locked up

  31. But again I ask when was the PC shot? Nothing from the video indicates that a man was down. The prison officers never check the van which left the scene very casually.

  32. Monster isn’t stupid. He knew his days were (are?) numbered. He did not go to the station by himself for obvious reasons.

  33. He probably is safer in jail than on the streets…(even the streets outside the east-west corridor) if gangs are involved…

  34. “Ramdass did not attribute her information to anyone.” Typically irresponsible reporting… She could have at least said “a source who refused to be named…” or something like that…

  35. There is an area out of camera sight between the prison gate and the pavement/road. The officer leaving his vehicle would have seen what the camera view was not able to show. That may explain his actions.

  36. Sorry I didn’t see anyone getting shot inside…. It was said that an officer was shot yet not on footage (well the footage that I’ve seen) but the officer reach quite up by the next corner before they were out…. Strange

  37. Does T&T “celebrate murders now?” Apparently T&T has a very violent streak…many people believe in hangings….so…

  38. Context. Factor in that what you’re not seeing is a prisons officer being shot inside, imagine a possible alarm being raised – as you said “just prior to the men alighting from the gates”.

  39. What is strange…. From the footage outside the jail it appears to show a police officer leaving the vehicle and running away just prior to the men alighting from the gates, then coming back after they ran on to Oxford street…. This was very alarming

  40. Soze was here for the CPL final

  41. My question is if these men were the main characters in this scene or will we see a Keyser Soze unveiled in time to come.

  42. We really happier than the LGBT community oui. Especially when the line minister uses the incident on Friday as a photo opt and to glorify himself

  43. We blame the government (rightly so), we blame the police (sometimes yes) but how many of you blame the person next to you? The taxi driver who enabled, the girlfriend and her family who help hide, the neighbours who see but don’t say? We created an environment that bore the very things we complain about with no shame. But at least you have carnival right?

  44. I don’t think the Carapo mosque needs Anna Ramdass to inform them of who did what.

  45. Lol. Haven’t seen your status

  46. i have TM on my status
    how much u owe me lol?

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