BY GEISHA KOWLESSAR
SIX mothers were in grief last night, after their sons were killed in separate incidents in north Trinidad.
The six victims were identified as:
n Kion Phillips, 19, of Laventille.
n Richard Dedier, 22, of Raymond Street, Diego Martin.
n Juman Abu Bakr Battersby, of Upper Haig Street in Carenage.
n Anthony Ryan, 21, of San Rafael.
n Troy Agostini, 27, of Chaguanas.
n Kurt Coppin, 42.
Their killings took the murder toll to 220—98 for the same period last year.
One of the distraught mothers, during an interview, said she had failed her son.
Phillips’ mother Diana Nedd said so as she recalled her son’s colourful life.
Nedd said she always prayed to God asking him to protect her son.
Exhausted from doing a late night shift as a security guard on Wednesday, Nedd said she fell asleep and forgot to say her prayers.
When she awoke the next morning, she was told that Phillips—who turned 19 last Sunday—was shot dead as he slept.
Phillips was murdered in the same house in which he sought refuge after receiving several death threats earlier in the year.
His bullet-riddled body was found in a house at Picton Road in Laventille around 6 am yesterday.
“I failed him. I tried my best to protect him and look what happen.
“I went to bed and I forget to ask the Lord to protect him.
“The first thing I hear when I wake up was that he dead,” Nedd said, as she waited on her son’s autopsy results at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday.
Nedd, of Eastern Quarry, Laventille, said her son had to flee from her home in February after threats were made on his life.
She said she believe her son was killed for keeping the company of a group of young men who were being blamed for setting fire to several houses in Picton, Laventille.
Recalling her last words to her son, Nedd said she begged him to be careful.
“He went to the house to stay with friends who he thought would protect him...He thought the killers would not come there,” she said.
Life on the run
A life on the run has become the norm for the average youth living in Laventille.
And Phillips was just one of many forced to leave the safety of his home in a bid to elude attackers, his mother said.
“No matter where my son went, they would have killed him...They have groups everywhere,” Nedd said.
She said after her son left home four months ago, he had to “sneak a chance” to visit his siblings.
“He used to take his chance to come home,” Nedd said.
“It was really hard for him to be running and looking over his shoulder all the time...But that is how most youths have to live in Laventille.”
Regular shoot-outs
Another Picton resident, who asked not to be identified, said almost every day shoot-outs between warring gangs occurred in Laventille.
“Sometimes when they point the gun, a light shine on you.
“That is to tell you the kind of firearm they have,” the resident said.
The crux of the shootings, the resident theorised, was an ongoing feud between gangs operating in Beverly Hills and Picton.
