Bullets were fired on the home of a State witness who said he met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning last month begging for protection in the United States for his family.

The windows of the Jarvis Mark’s house were broken and his car was struck by several bullets with the intention that it would explode.

Mark is the main witness in the case against a police officer charged with renting his gun to a civilian, and with misbehaviour in public office.

This was the second alleged attack on Mark’s home in Fyzabad.

Three months ago, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his house. It exploded but did not burn.

Mark pleaded then for help, saying ’me and my family could get kill any time’.

Mark, 26, is the father of an infant girl. His family was in hiding last night.

Deputy Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes said Mark’s case was one for the Justice Protection Programme.

But Mark claimed that he was being denied protection because he had informed on several senior police officers involved in a crime syndicate.

He also claimed that police were refusing to help him because they claimed he asked for a gun to defend himself. He denied this.

Mark said he also met, on the orders of Manning, with National Security Minister Martin Joseph and Director of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad (SAUTT), Brigadier Peter Joseph. All three men, Mark claimed, were told of the level of corruption in the Police Service.

SAUTT referred enquiries on the meeting between Mark, Peter Joseph and the politicians, to the Ministry of National Security Ministry.

The ministry issued a press release last evening, stating ’the matter is a highly sensitive one and it will be irresponsible to discuss it in the media’.

The release stated, ’The concerns of Mr Jarvis Mark are being investigated and negotiations are ongoing so as to arrive at a mutually agreed solution.’

Mark said that since helping officers of the Anti Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) build a case against the accused officer arrested in July, he has been left to protect himself.

He said, ’I asked them just get my family out of the country and out of harms way because no matter where in Trinidad they stay, they will be at risk. I told them I can stay here. I make up my mind to dead’.

Mark detailed an alleged meeting with Manning at the Prime Minister’s San Fernando East constituency Office two Thursdays ago, and a meeting the following day with Minister Joseph and Brigadier Joseph.

He said a threat assessment was done in preparation for his family’s safe keeping.

But the police stopped calling, and Mark claimed that his last conversation with a senior security official was ’he cannot send us out of the country. So it seems like everybody wants to get me killed. But it is the duty of the State to protect me. I put my life at risk. Now they have abandoned me’.

Mark has turned down an offer to be kept at a local safe house. He said it was unsafe.