(Trinidad Express) A 15-year-old Laventille schoolboy was shot dead after gunmen pumped seven bullets into him during an incident along Plaisance Road, John John, Laventille, on Wednesday night.
Keiron Farrell, a Form Two pupil of the Russell Latapy High School in Morvant, died while undergoing emergency surgery at the Port of Spain General Hospital shortly after the incident.
His mother, Carol Halls, during a brief interview with the Express at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, described her son “as a very loving and generous person”. She said her son was in company with his father when he was shot.
“He was a great person. Everybody who ask him to do anything he would do it for them. He had no argument with anybody but he was with his father who was suppose to be in the building,” Halls said before the interview was cut short after she was called into a waiting police vehicle by a male relative.
Forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov, speaking with members of the media yesterday, said Farrell was shot seven times about the body including the head, chest, abdomen and legs.
According to police, around 10.45 p.m., Farrell and his father were seated in a vehicle driven by an elder sibling north along Plaisance Terrace, John John, when the car was stopped by two armed men near the basketball court.
One of the men looked into the vehicle, making enquiries regarding its occupants, while the other walked towards the side of the vehicle where Farrell was seated.
The boy, police said, opened the door and attempted to make a dash for freedom when he was shot multiple times about the body. The other occupants in the car were not injured.
Police said Farrell was not known to be involved in criminal activities and a motive for the incident is yet to be established.
Meanwhile, a 54-year-old El Socorro building contractor was shot dead yesterday and another man critically wounded during an incident at a residence at the corner of Second Avenue and Eleventh Street Barataria.
The victim was identified as Wendell Lewis, of Martin Trace, El Socorro.
The other injured man, Audain Anderson, 34, who resides at the premises where the shooting occurred, up to late yesterday remained fighting for his life at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope.
He was shot multiple times in the chest, legs and abdomen. He had just arrived at his home when the incident occurred.
According to police, around 8.30 a.m. Williams and Anderson were working inside a room on the ground floor of the building when several loud explosions rang out.
Anderson’s relatives rushed to the scene and discovered both men in a pool of blood. Anderson was placed in a private vehicle and taken to the Mt Hope hospital.
Officers from the North Eastern Division Task Force led by Cpl Darryl La Pierre responded to the shooting and took Williams to the medical facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police said $12,000 was found in Williams’s possession.
A team of officers from the North Eastern Division led by Acting Supt John Daniel, including Insp Garfield Stewart, Sgt Michael Veronique and Cpls Maynard, Toby and De John visited the scene.
The latest killings have pushed the murder toll to 125. For the comparable period last year the murder toll was 151.
Investigations are continuing into the incident by officers of the Region II Homicide Bureau of Investigations.
