The families of two Trinidadian men killed in an Oct. 14 Operation Southern Spear boat strike are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing, claiming they were innocent passengers on what the Pentagon has insisted was a drug-trafficking vessel.
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Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, were heading home from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago when the boat they were in was targeted in one of at least 36 strikes on vessels accused of trafficking drugs, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court of Massachusetts.
The families — Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, and Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh — are suing, citing US and international law in a case led by the ACLU.
The complaint argues the men posed no specific threat and were unlawfully targeted, invoking the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute. The families are demanding an unspecified amount of compensation.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
