"Cold-Blooded Murder": Families of Trinidadian Men Killed in U.S. Boat Strike Sue Trump Admin

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The families of two men from Trinidad killed in an October U.S. missile strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing. The families of 26-year-old Chad Joseph and 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo say the two men were returning home from fishing and farming in Venezuela, not smuggling drugs as the Trump administration has claimed without evidence. Four others on the same boat were also killed. In all, at least 125 people have been killed in the unprecedented U.S. bombings of civilian boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. It's "the latest example of the Trump administration's total mockery of, contempt for the post-World World II human rights consensus, where nations are constrained by law and not mere might," says attorney Baher Azmy, who is representing the Joseph and Samaroo families in their lawsuit. He calls their deaths "killings for sport and spectacle," adding that they are part of a wider pattern of federal overreach that can be seen in the administration's domestic crackdown on protesters and journalists. Azmy warns that the excessive use of force by federal agents in Minneapolis may be "a dry run" for "deployment of troops during elections."

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