National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds says there is no evidence to suggest that gangsters are marking the children of their rivals for death.
His comment came in response to a Sunday Guardian exclusive which revealed that almost a dozen boys under the age of 17 had lost their lives in the last 22 months due to warring gangs and gun violence.
Within the past week, two children—nine-year-old Jomol Modeste, of Enterprise, Chaguanas, and three-year-old Nazim Owen, of La Puerta, Diego Martin—were shot dead in separate incidents.
Commenting on this on Wednesday, acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob noted that gang members of long ago honoured a code where women and children of their enemies were not harmed in disputes. However, Jacob said in recent times this code was being broken as other people, including children, were losing their lives in gun attacks.
But speaking to Guardian Media via a telephone interview yesterday, Minister Hinds said it does not appear that children are deliberately being targeted.
“From the information available to me, it does not appear as though there is any evidence or focus on the part of gangsters to kill children. A child was killed in Diego Martin and from the reports available to us, it appears as though the child was an occupant of the vehicle which was attacked,” Hinds said.
He added too that “it appears that nine-year-old Modeste was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I have information because I visited the area with the Police Commissioner and the Chief of Defence Staff and other arms of law enforcement. I had the opportunity to speak with residents and people who were close to the nine-year-old and based on what they heard, and based on information Commissioner Jacob had, there was no indication that the child was targeted,” Hinds said.
He explained: “But he might have been certainly in the wrong place when these ignorant, empty, gun-toting criminals drove there in a bread van and shot up the place for whatever motivated them, perhaps totally unaware that this nine-year-old was where he was and he fell victim to one of these dirty bullets.”
Hinds said the murders are under investigation and so far, there has been no information that children are being targeted by gangs.
In the latest incident on Wednesday night, Korey Clarke and his wife Samantha Patrick, both 30, were at their Aboud Circular, St James apartment when they were shot dead in their bed by gunmen. However, their seven-month-old daughter was spared, although relatives believe this was because they shielded her from bullets.
Police believe as the shooting began, both Clarke and Patrick used their bodies to shield the baby girl, who was also lying on the bed.
Last week, Acting Police Commissioner Erla Christopher was questioned about the increase in drive-by shootings this year, which was responsible for the deaths of 12 children and the wounding of eight others in the last 22 months. She said many of these shootings were the result of gang violence.
Joanne Archie, head of the T&T Police Service Corporate Communications Unit, said these killings were of grave concern to the TTPS. She said evidence shows that in some cases, the children’s parents were involved in illegal activities. Archie said victims who survive the shootings had received counselling from the TTPS’ Victim and Support Unit.