(Trinidad Guardian) Less than a month after he turned 18, Jeremy John was shot dead near his mother’s home in Penal on Saturday night.
Police said the teen lived at Pleasantville Avenue in San Fernando with his father Jerome John but while on his way to visit his uncle Martin Morris in Sunrees Road, gunmen pulled up and opened fire.
Morris, 52, told police he was watching television around 7.40 pm when he heard the gun shot and took cover. After the shotgun was over a neighbor told him his nephew had been killed. Police said John was hit six times by the bullets.
Speaking to Guardian Media, his mother Nicole Morris said he worked as a laborer with the URP in San Fernando and hadn’t run in with the law. During his childhood, he learned to walk on stilts with Bisnath Junior Kaisokah School of Art.
Unbearably sober, Morris blamed himself for John’s death.
“It’s my fault. I called on him to come home. I wanted to see it. If he hadn’t come home in Penal, he wouldn’t have been shot, ”he sobbed.
He explained that on March 10 John was celebrating his 18th birthday and as a gift she bought him a house.
“I wanted him to come live near me. He was my firstborn and I loved him. I don’t know how I would act without it, ”sobbed.
He explained that after John collected his first salary, he bought a pair of shoes and gave her $ 40 to buy snacks for his brothers and sisters.
She also said she was confused about who wanted him to die.
“Why didn’t they send him home to his mother. Why did they have to go kill him? “She cried.
Grandmother Alice Joseph had this message for her killers.
“God will deal with all yuh. Jah will deal with this, ”he shouted.
Grandfather Drayston Pierre said he also didn’t know why anyone would want to kill the boy.
“He had no enemies to the best of my knowledge. He lived here. He only moved to his father’s house last year, ”he said. Pierre said there are too many idle young people on the streets.
“Long ago when I was younger, there were many trade schools where young people could get training in agriculture, mechanics, tailoring, electrical, or plumbing,” he recalled.
“We would never see a youth man as a stray on the street. That was because there were programs that young people could participate in. It wasn’t difficult to find a skill because there were trade schools and craft courses to do, ”added Pierre.
He called on the government to revive these trade schools and use community centers.
“We should encourage the continued trading of such skills. It’s the only way to save the boy, ”he said.
Nicole Morris, Jeremy John’s mother, is comforted by her relative Alice Joseph at her Lowkey Trace home, Penal. John, 18, was murdered outside his uncle’s home in Sunrees Road, Penal, on Saturday.
Nicole Morris, Jeremy John’s mother, is comforted by her relative Alice Joseph at her Lowkey Trace home, Penal. John, 18, was murdered outside his uncle’s home in Sunrees Road, Penal, on Saturday.