Last week, a 14-year-old boy was iden­ti­fied as the main sus­pect in a dou­ble mur­der which oc­curred at Ben­ny Lane, St Au­gus­tine. The vic­tims died from gun­shot wounds.

As crime tears at the fab­ric of the coun­try, the ages of peo­ple en­gaged in il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty are in­creas­ing­ly be­low the age of 18. Gangs con­tin­ue to at­tract young peo­ple.  

In terms of gen­der, the sta­tis­tics show more male youths in crime than fe­males.

This week, the Sun­day Guardian spot­lights chil­dren in crime.

SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Forty-two chil­dren be­tween the ages of 12 to 18 are cur­rent­ly be­ing in­car­cer­at­ed at the Youth Train­ing and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (YTRC) charged with an ar­ray of crim­i­nal of­fences.

Three of the 42 are girls.

Some of the charges ranged from pos­ses­sion of firearms to armed rob­bery, shoot­ing with in­tent, rob­bery with vi­o­lence, kid­nap­ping and even mur­der.

The sta­tis­tics were pro­vid­ed to the Sun­day Guardian on Thurs­day by As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Pris­ons Win­field Walk­er who is at­tached to the Arou­ca-based YTRC.

The cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ty hous­es males and fe­males (young of­fend­ers) un­der the age of 18 or mi­nors.

Walk­er told the Sun­day Guardian that 34 of the res­i­dents fall in the age group 12 to 18.

Five of the res­i­dents are over the age of 18. How­ev­er, Walk­er said they “would have been com­mit­ted by the court and sent here be­fore at­tain­ing the age of 18.”

Out of 39 males, on­ly four have been con­vict­ed. The re­main­ing 35 were re­mand­ed in cus­tody and their court mat­ters are still un­de­ter­mined.

The three fe­males, who fall in the age group 14 to 18, each have a mat­ter be­fore the court but re­main “un­con­vict­ed” at this time. The charges they faced were lar­ce­ny of a mo­tor ve­hi­cle, pos­ses­sion of a firearm and waste­ful em­ploy­ment of the po­lice’s time.

Walk­er said the list of charges for the males was ex­ten­sive.

They in­clude as­sault, bur­glary, as­sault with in­tent to rob, mur­der, house­break­ing and lar­ce­ny, lar­ce­ny of per­sons,  ma­li­cious dam­age, lar­ce­ny, pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion, kid­nap­ping, pos­ses­sion of am­mu­ni­tion, pos­ses­sion of a firearm, mar­i­jua­na for traf­fick­ing, pos­ses­sion of firearm and am­mu­ni­tion, pos­ses­sion of dan­ger­ous drugs for traf­fick­ing, pos­ses­sion of co­caine, rob­bery with per­son­al vi­o­lence,  re­sist­ing ar­rest, armed rob­bery, shoot­ing with in­tent and false im­pris­on­ment.

List of charges YTRC’s res­i­dents cur­rent­ly face

As­sault-2

Bur­glary-1

As­sault with in­tent to rob-2

House­break­ing and lar­ce­ny-3

Lar­ce­ny-3

Lar­ce­ny of per­sons-1

Ma­li­cious dam­age-1

Pos­ses­sion  of am­mu­ni­tion-1

Pos­ses­sion of firearm-6

Pos­ses­sion of firearm and am­mu­ni­tion-5

Mar­i­jua­na for traf­fick­ing-2

Pos­ses­sion of dan­ger­ous drug for traf­fick­ing-1

Pos­ses­sion of co­caine-1

Rob­bery with per­son­al vi­o­lence -5

Mur­der-1

Re­sist­ing ar­rest-1

Armed rob­bery-3

Shoot­ing with in­tent-1

False im­pris­on­ment-1

Kid­nap­ping-1

The charges, Walk­er said, showed the signs of the times.

As for the weapons the ju­ve­niles were caught with, Walk­er was un­able to say.

He said chil­dren who are be­yond the con­trol of their par­ents or fre­quent­ly run away would be sent to the YTRC by the court for su­per­vi­sion.

Walk­er ad­mit­ted that many of the im­pris­oned males had been in­volved in a gang be­fore be­ing ar­rest­ed and charged.

He iden­ti­fied some of the gangs as Sev­en, Sixx and Any­body Gets It (ABG).

These males op­er­at­ed at St John’s Road, St Au­gus­tine, and Far­ley Street, Tu­na­puna.

“With­in the at-risk com­mu­ni­ties and height­ened gang ac­tiv­i­ties you find a lot of them grad­u­at­ing to be part of the gang cul­ture.”

Walk­er said while a res­i­dent would learn a par­tic­u­lar skill at YTRC dur­ing their in­car­cer­a­tion there may be lit­tle op­por­tu­ni­ty for him/her in their com­mu­ni­ty af­ter be­ing re­leased.

Asked if there is hope for these res­i­dents, Walk­er said a col­lec­tive ef­fort was need­ed from gov­ern­ment agen­cies to help these young of­fend­ers.

“The af­ter­care is what is need­ed. No mat­ter how many pro­grammes you may ex­pose a res­i­dent to, when they have to go back to their at-risk com­mu­ni­ties and house­holds that is where the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty takes place.”

He said the gang lead­ers would re­cruit the teenagers af­ter their re­lease for re-in­doc­tri­na­tion.

“The forces of the gangs are very pow­er­ful.”

Due to peer pres­sure, a bro­ken fam­i­ly unit, fi­nan­cial con­straints, un­em­ploy­ment and pover­ty, the young men would turn to gangs as an easy way out.

“Some­times that is the on­ly mode of sur­vival they know.”

Walk­er said the YTRC has been of­fer­ing pro­grammes to re­duce re­cidi­vism.

Five years ago, Walk­er said, the ju­ve­nile pop­u­la­tion was clos­er to “100” stat­ing that the num­bers have been re­duc­ing.

To­day, he said, there are min­i­mal re­peat of­fend­ers at the YTRC.

‘Lack of prop­er par­ent­ing and fam­i­ly val­ues’

Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er De­op­er­sad Ra­moutar said the YTRC has been pro­vid­ing men­tor­ing, life skills, anger man­age­ment, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, me­di­a­tion, team build­ing, sports and ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes for these mis­guid­ed teenagers.

He said most of the res­i­dents lacked prop­er par­ent­ing and fam­i­ly val­ues.

As a cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ty, YTRC tries to rekin­dle the re­la­tion­ship be­tween par­ents and res­i­dents.

These pro­grammes, he said, are cost­ly to the tax­pay­er.

“The prison is a nec­es­sary evil of us­ing force to keep a hu­man be­ing in­car­cer­at­ed.”

De­op­er­sad said some cou­ples pro­duce chil­dren who are left to fend for them­selves.

He ad­vised young ladies not to get preg­nant “for a part­ner who you know isn’t worth be­ing the fa­ther of your child. Don’t let your hor­mones and your sex­u­al dri­ve make you make wrong de­ci­sions and al­low your child to come in­to this world to suf­fer.”

Mi­LAT en­rols at-risk males

The Sun­day Guardian reached out to the pro­gramme di­rec­tor at the Mil­i­tary-Led Aca­d­e­m­ic Train­ing (Mi­LAT) pro­gramme Lieu­tenant An­tho­ny God­dard to find out how many ex­pelled stu­dents had been en­rolled in their so­cial in­ter­ven­tion pro­gramme but he was un­able to pro­vide a fig­ure, stat­ing that such in­for­ma­tion can be ob­tained from the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice.

How­ev­er, God­dard said, the mat­ter re­gard­ing stu­dents who were ex­pelled was “be­fore Cab­i­net for ap­proval in terms of how ex­act­ly that is go­ing to hap­pen in­to the Mi­LAT struc­ture.”

Mi­LAT en­rols at-risk males be­tween the ages of 16 to 20 in­to their pro­gramme.

These in­clude young males who have crim­i­nal mat­ters be­fore the court.

As to how many of these at-risk men were ac­cept­ed in­to their last pro­gramme, God­dard said he did not have that in­for­ma­tion be­fore him.

He said these young men are “in­no­cent un­til proven guilty.”

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 85 per cent of par­tic­i­pants grad­u­ate from the Mi­LAT pro­gramme, he said.

Gang re­cruit­ing and men­tor­ing

How young men get roped in

Be­hav­iour­al change con­sul­tant Franklyn Dol­ly said for a 13, 14 or 15-year-old boy to brazen­ly open fire on civil­ians or ri­val gang mem­bers can ei­ther be “an in­duc­tion” in­to a gang or “to show they are in con­trol and have lim­it­less pow­er.”

These ju­ve­niles, he said, have no lead­er­ship in their house­holds and are eas­i­ly re­cruit­ed by gang lead­ers.

“There is no male in the home most of the time. If there is a male around they are pas­sive. The gang lead­ers know their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and would go af­ter them.”

He said these teenagers would feel a sense of be­long­ing and love when they be­come mem­bers of a gang be­cause in school they are un­able to fit in and are not aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly in­clined.

“The on­ly way they know how to be some­body is to be with a gun. And then they are go­ing to use it.”

Dol­ly won­dered how many of the 2,814 stu­dents who dropped out of school dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic (be­tween the start of 2020 and the end of 2022) had been re-in­te­grat­ed in­to the school sys­tem.

He said lit­tle at­ten­tion was paid to this group of chil­dren and many could have been re­cruit­ed in­to gangs.

“About ten per cent of our chil­dren could dis­rupt this coun­try. Once they mo­bilise they could be so dan­ger­ous ... that is what is hap­pen­ing. So we have to dis­man­tle those things. The on­ly way you can break up the gangs is to have some­thing at­trac­tive to of­fer them.”

Dol­ly said if this “ten per cent” of delin­quent and de­viant teenagers con­tin­ue to grow “we could have a big­ger cri­sis on our hands.”

Gang lead­ers re­plac­ing mal­func­tion­ing fa­thers

Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist pas­tor Clive Dot­tin said the coun­try was un­der­es­ti­mat­ing the men­tor­ing by gang lead­ers.

“We are al­low­ing the lo­cal mafia with their Latin Amer­i­can con­nec­tions to train and em­pow­er teenagers and young adults to be­come se­r­i­al killers in T&T.”

Hav­ing coun­selled teenagers in­volved in gangs and drugs and gun ped­dling, Dot­tin said that of those he tried to help at least “60 per cent” have re­fused to turn their lives around.

Last month, Dot­tin said, he held a con­ver­sa­tion with a 16-year-old gang mem­ber who want­ed his step­fa­ther killed.

“He told me he had al­ready con­tact­ed an as­sas­sin.”

Dozens of gang lead­ers, Dot­tin said, have now re­placed mal­func­tion­ing fa­thers.

Dot­tin spoke about two sec­ondary schools in east Trinidad where gang lead­ers have been re­cruit­ing male stu­dents.

This was told to Dot­tin by the prin­ci­pals dur­ing a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny last year.

“The strat­e­gy of these gangs is phe­nom­e­nal. They are do­ing much bet­ter than the Gov­ern­ment and a lot of church­es.”

He said Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher was clue­less as to what was hap­pen­ing on the ground.

“I think the Gov­ern­ment is hop­ing for a drop in the mur­der rate this year and af­ter that, they will go in­to next year’s gen­er­al elec­tion.”

Dot­tin said when a gun is put in­to the hands of a teenag­er they feel om­nipo­tent.

“The way to set­tle dis­putes and ri­val­ry is to kill.” The best way to solve a prob­lem is to be vi­o­lent. What I find among the youth is an ap­petite for re­venge.”

Many of the young re­cruits, Dot­tin said, look for­ward to be­ing shot.

“Those who sus­tained gun­shot wounds wear it as a badge of ho­n­our. Af­ter that, they get pro­mot­ed in the gang. It’s an in­duc­tion and in­doc­tri­na­tion. We have a pan­dem­ic when it comes to teenagers hav­ing ac­cess to guns. This is a se­ri­ous thing in this coun­try. We are in a ma­jor cri­sis here. And it’s an in­ten­tion­al plan by se­nior gang lead­ers. The gang lead­ers don’t think they are win­ning. They know they are win­ning.”

Dot­tin said while the blood of in­no­cent cit­i­zens con­tin­ues to flow, the Gov­ern­ment has been talk­ing crap with lit­tle ac­tion.

“A lot of them nev­er coun­selled one gang leader in their life.”

He said the Gov­ern­ment has to re­vive in­sti­tu­tions of the State and re­move cor­rupt el­e­ments that are pro­tect­ing the wrong­do­ers.

The re­li­gious leader said guns have been en­ter­ing our coun­try like no­body’s busi­ness.

“I un­der­stand from a cer­tain politi­cian that there is a par­tic­u­lar gang leader who wants to unite all the gangs un­der him. I am say­ing to you, if that hap­pens that guy will have more pow­er than Imam Yasin Abu Bakr.”

If there is a unit­ed front with all the gang lead­ers, Dot­tin said, all hell would break loose in the coun­try.

“But some of the gang lead­ers are not falling for it.”

No re­sponse from the Po­lice Ser­vice

A list of ques­tions was emailed to the com­mu­ni­ca­tions de­part­ment of the T&T

Po­lice Ser­vice on Wednes­day re­gard­ing how many in­di­vid­u­als un­der the age of 18 were charged for guns, am­mu­ni­tion, home in­va­sions, armed rob­beries and rob­bery with as­sault over the last decade.

The ques­tions were re­ferred to the Crime and Prob­lem Analy­sis branch for re­spons­es which the Sun­day Guardian did not re­ceive up to yes­ter­day.

The Sun­day Guardian al­so reached out to Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly query­ing how many of the 2,814 school dropouts had re-en­tered the school sys­tem and how many ex­pelled stu­dents had been en­rolled in the Mi­LAT pro­gramme.

Gads­by-Dol­ly ad­vised that we seek a re­sponse to the lat­ter ques­tion from the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice while she did not re­spond to the first ques­tion.

Chil­dren un­der 18 caught with guns

May 15, 2023–A 15-year-old boy was held by the po­lice with an AR-15 ri­fle and a quan­ti­ty of am­mu­ni­tion dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in San­gre Grande. The gun and am­mu­ni­tion were seized in the boy’s bed­room.

March 28, 2022–A 16 year old was ar­rest­ed af­ter he was caught in pos­ses­sion of a Mac 11 gun at Si­mon Street, Diego Mar­tin. A search was con­duct­ed at the boy’s home where po­lice seized the il­le­gal weapon.

March 24, 2023–Po­lice ar­rest­ed a 15-year-old for pos­ses­sion of a re­volver and dri­ving in Gas­par­il­lo while not be­ing the hold­er of a Dri­ver’s Per­mit.

March 2, 2023–Ari­ma Mag­is­trate Bramb­hanan Dubay fined a 17 year old $16,000 af­ter he pled guilty to pos­ses­sion of an AR ri­fle and am­mu­ni­tion. The teenag­er sur­ren­dered the gun to the po­lice when they ar­rived at his La Hor­quet­ta home on April 28, 2021.

Feb­ru­ary 16, 2023–A con­tin­gent of of­fi­cers on foot pa­trol in Mal­oney ar­rest­ed a 16 year old for pos­ses­sion of a Mac 10 firearm with one mag­a­zine and 12 rounds of 9 mm bul­lets at Build­ing 17.

Feb­ru­ary 9, 2022–A 15-year-old who ran af­ter see­ing the po­lice was ap­pre­hend­ed and searched. The po­lice found a Steyr 9mm firearm con­tain­ing sev­er­al rounds of 9 mm bul­lets.

Ju­ly 26, 2021–Po­lice ar­rest­ed and charged a 17-year-old af­ter he was spot­ted stand­ing be­hind a clus­ter of ba­nana trees in Rich Plain, Diego Mar­tin with a Bar­reta pis­tol and 13 rounds of 9 mm am­mu­ni­tion.

Ju­ly 21, 2021–Adri­an “Fat Boy” Bernard ap­peared be­fore a Port-of-Spain mag­is­trate charged with the pos­ses­sion of a Kel­tec se­mi-au­to­mat­ic firearm. The teenag­er was ar­rest­ed along Aboud Cir­cu­lar, St James, dur­ing a po­lice op­er­a­tion.

Ju­ly 20, 2021–Dur­ing Op­er­a­tion Strike Back 3, po­lice ar­rest­ed an 18-year-old who had a loaded Glock pis­tol and 13 rounds of 9mm am­mu­ni­tion tucked in his waist in Diego Mar­tin.

June 20, 2021–po­lice con­duct­ing a rou­tine ex­er­cise in Pokhor Road, Long­denville caught an 18-year-old try­ing to ditch a shot­gun and three rounds of 12 gauge car­tridges.

The Ju­di­cia­ry had re­port­ed that based on mat­ters filed in the Chil­dren’s Court dur­ing the pe­ri­od Feb­ru­ary 28 to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2018, 82 male and four fe­male child of­fend­ers were re­mand­ed to the YTRC.

As of April 30, 2019, the num­ber of male and fe­male of­fend­ers re­mand­ed to the YTRC was 54.

This was ac­cord­ing to da­ta in a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee 2018/2019 re­port on Hu­man Rights, Equal­i­ty and Di­ver­si­ty which fo­cused on the treat­ment of child of­fend­ers chaired by Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly.