Families of Trinidadian men killed in US strike sue Trump admin

The families of two men killed in a U.S. military strike in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela in October have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying the attack was "manifestly unlawful."

Six men traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad were killed in the strike, and the family members suing over the deaths of two of the victims allege that their relatives were fishermen returning from Venezuela to their home in Trinidad when their boat was attacked. The families are suing for civil damages under a federal maritime law. 

No immediate response came from the Pentagon or Justice Department.

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Chad Joseph and Rishi Samarooo of Trinidad and Tobago were two of the six individuals killed in the strike, according to the suit.

"On October 14, 2025, the United States government authorized and launched a missile strike against a boat carrying six people traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The strike killed all six, including Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian nationals who had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela, and who were returning to their homes in Las Cuevas, in nearby Trinidad and Tobago," the suit states.

"The October 14 attack was part of an unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign of lethal strikes against small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean," the lawsuit asserts.

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Joseph's mother, Lenore Burnley, and Samaroo's sister, Sallycar Korasingh, are "seeking compensation for the killing of Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo, for the benefit of their beneficiaries," the suit notes. "Through this suit, Ms. Burnley and Ms. Korasingh also demand accountability for U.S. officials' brazen acts - taken in wanton disregard of the most elementary principles of law and humanity - that took away their loved ones forever."

The document points to an Oct. 14 Truth Social post by President Donald Trump that features a video of a vessel being blown up.

He alleged the six individuals killed in the strike were "narcoterrorists."

"Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility - just off the Coast of Venezuela," the president declared in the post. 

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"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route. The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!" Trump added in the post.