Peter Christopher pchristopher@trinidadexpress.com
Tuesday, February 10th 2009
An innocent laugh by Devon Blake, as he looked on at two adults arguing, cost him his life on Sunday night.
Blake,16, a form one pupil of the Russell Latapy High School, was sitting in porch of his Chinatown, Upper St Francois Valley Road, Belmont, home when a gunman approached him and opened fire.
He was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where he died.
Speaking with the Express yesterday, relatives said hours before the shooting, two men were arguing and Blake started to laugh at one of them.
The man reportedly started threatening Blake, asking him what he was laughing at as the youngster walked away from the two men.
The man is then believed to have left the scene to get a gun before following the youngster to his home.
Denise Blake described her youngest child as a loving and helpful youngster yesterday.
"He was a community child, he would always be helping out the neighbours," said Blake at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
Homicide detectives are continuing investigations.
And in an unrelated incident, the brother of a police officer was shot dead while returning from a birthday party during the wee hours of yesterday morning.
Dion Primus, 20, a former professional footballer, was killed when a black CRV pulled alongside the car he was in and gunmen opened fire.
Primus, originally of Trou Macaque, Laventille, moved to Dorata Street, Laventiile, following an upsurge in gang violence.
Police reports state that Wendell Douglas and Kevon Springer were also in the car with Primus, who was seated in the front passenger seat.
As they approached the Fernandes compound on the Eastern Main Road in Laventille, the occupants of the CRV reportedly opened fire on the car.
Douglas, who was driving, managed to speed off, but the car then crashed into a utility pole outside the Fernandes compound. All the occupants were rushed to hospital, where Primus died on arrival.
Douglas and Springer remained warded at hospital, both in serious condition, last night.
The two killings pushed the toll to 74 for the year.
At the same stage last year, the murder toll was 51.
