(Trinidad Express) Police are probing the death of a six-year-old Laventille boy who was reportedly beaten to death by a male relative for not doing his homework.
Homicide detectives were up to late last night at Herman Scott Road, taking witness statements and searching for clues at the home where Josiah Governor lived with his 22-year-old mother and the male relative.
According to neighbours, the frail child would be constantly beaten by the 25-year-old relative and for not doing well academically with one neighbour saying that the suspect was a “bright boy” and the child was a slow learner.
“What that child could do to get licks like that?” one neighbour asked as members of the media spoke to neighbours who gathered near a parlour discussing the matter.
They said they were accustomed to hearing the child’s screams, but no one ever intervened.
Lystra Salazar, a neighbour, said one time she threw a big stone on the roof of the home because she was tired of hearing the child screams.
“Them living here years now and he accustomed beating the child. One time I wanted to call the police but my mister tell me no. Last time I couldn’t take it and throw a big stone on the roof,” Salazar said.
Another neighbour who wished not be named said she would normally hear the child and the child’s mother “bawling” but never thought to intervene because she “not getting in man and woman business”.
Police said the child was taken to the Besson Street Police Station around 3 p.m. yesterday by the two adults who asked that the child be taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital. The officers who noticed the child was unconscious rushed the child to the hospital where he was reported dead on arrival.
Officers believed the child was beaten with a blunt object as there were several marks about his body. The child was brought to the station, police say, wrapped in a piece of cloth.
Police are awaiting autopsy results before determining whether the killing can be classified as a murder. The couple are assisting police with their investigations.
