Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

A four-year-old boy from Pe­tit Val­ley was grazed on his hand by a bul­let as he was caught in the mid­dle of a long-stand­ing dis­pute be­tween his un­cle and a neigh­bour that bub­bled over yes­ter­day morn­ing. 

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 6 am, 50-year-old Tyrell Goodridge, of Sto­er Dri­ve, Pe­tit Val­ley, was walk­ing near his home with his nephew Nicholas Thomas in his arms when he had an ar­gu­ment with his next-door neigh­bour. 

Goodridge and his nephew left to walk through a track and when they were on their way back to their home, they were con­front­ed by the neigh­bour, who fired three gun­shots in their di­rec­tion. 

Goodridge was shot in his hand and his but­tocks, while his nephew, the pupil of a pre-school in the com­mu­ni­ty, was grazed on the palm of his left hand. 

Both rel­a­tives were tak­en to the St James Med­ical Com­plex for treat­ment for their in­juries, which were clas­si­fied as non-life threat­en­ing. 

The 62-year-old sus­pect did not flee the scene af­ter the shoot­ing and was ar­rest­ed by de­tec­tives of the West­ern Di­vi­sion at his home. 

The of­fi­cers al­so seized the gun that was be­lieved to have been used in the shoot­ing. The firearm is ex­pect­ed to be sent for bal­lis­tic test­ing to con­firm the same.

When a news team from Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene, Thomas’ rel­a­tives and neigh­bours were still in dis­be­lief over what tran­spired. 

Goodridge’s cousin, who asked to re­main uniden­ti­fied, ex­plained that the shoot­ing stemmed from a long-stand­ing dis­pute. 

“He and the man (the sus­pect) had a falling out last year and they even had a lit­tle fight and things be­fore with bot­tles be­ing thrown,” he said.

He blamed both his rel­a­tive and the neigh­bour for his nephew’s in­jury. 

“Whether you feel you are right or wrong, be­cause I am not say­ing who was right or wrong in the in­ci­dent be­fore, but what hap­pened to­day, to me, that is both of them fault,” he said. 

He claimed that he was shocked that the sus­pect would have shot at Goodridge know­ing that he was hold­ing the child and that the oth­er chil­dren were around. 

“He was the one with the gun and shoot­ing wild. He would have seen the child, but like he just got so an­gry it didn’t mat­ter to him. The way he was shoot­ing, any­body could have picked up if more peo­ple were on the road at the time,” he said. 

He al­so ad­mit­ted that he scold­ed Goodridge for his role in the shoot­ing be­fore he went to the hos­pi­tal for treat­ment. 

“At the end of the day, you as an adult can’t be pro­vok­ing peo­ple or pick­ing fights when you have the youth in your arms. Come on. You know how the place is. Every day you hear some­body dy­ing,” he added. 

“You have to act in a man­ner that pro­tects not on­ly you but the chil­dren,” he said. 

The shoot­ing took place less than two days af­ter the coun­try was left shocked by the mur­der of 12-year-old Ezekiel Paria. 

Paria, a Stan­dard Five pupil of East­ern Boys’ Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School with dreams of one day be­com­ing a pi­lot, was shot by a stray bul­let while rid­ing his bi­cy­cle near his home on Laven­tille Road, Laven­tille, on Thurs­day evening. 

The gun­men were re­port­ed­ly tar­get­ing a 39-year-old res­i­dent, who was dri­ving in the com­mu­ni­ty with his 15-year-old daugh­ter. He was shot while his daugh­ter es­caped un­scathed. 

Two sus­pects were ar­rest­ed by po­lice short­ly af­ter with po­lice seiz­ing an il­le­gal firearm, am­mu­ni­tion, and a quan­ti­ty of drugs from the ve­hi­cle they were dri­ving in. 

The sus­pects in both shoot­ings re­mained de­tained up to late yes­ter­day. 

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.