Relative insists Tobago schoolboy not a troublemaker

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The rel­a­tive of a To­ba­go school­boy de­tained in con­nec­tion with the death of an el­der­ly fam­i­ly mem­ber is in­sist­ing that he is not an ag­gres­sive per­son.

The rel­a­tive, who said he has a close re­la­tion­ship with the 15-year-old, said the teenag­er is a very tal­ent­ed foot­baller who as­pires to play pro­fes­sion­al­ly.

The mi­nor was held on Sun­day fol­low­ing an al­ter­ca­tion with his rel­a­tive in Ply­mouth.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, the boy and the man had a con­fronta­tion on Sat­ur­day, which led to the el­der­ly in­di­vid­ual suf­fer­ing a blow to his head.

He was tak­en to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment, but died the fol­low­ing day.

The rel­a­tive told Guardian Me­dia the fam­i­ly is pray­ing dai­ly for the mi­nor’s re­lease as he has al­ready missed the first two days of the new school term.

“Well, I hope to see (him) come out of this prop­er­ly, that he could en­joy his sports and ed­u­ca­tion and these things. Sport is im­por­tant. He likes his sports. He must come out from this freely, so he could con­tin­ue the sports. I go glad,” he said yes­ter­day at his home, al­so in Ply­mouth.

Asked if he had ever heard of the teenag­er giv­ing trou­ble be­fore, he was em­phat­ic in his re­sponse.

“No way at all, at all, at all. Not my (re­la­tion). Could be some­body else, not my (re­la­tion).”

He said the teenag­er would vis­it his res­i­dence reg­u­lar­ly and they would joke and have fun.

“We were very close. When he come down here, he make me laugh, make me feel good. He’s a joy­ful fel­la.”

But the rel­a­tive said the teenag­er had com­plained to him pre­vi­ous­ly about the en­vi­ron­ment at his home.

He added, “Things does hap­pen. I sor­ry my (re­la­tion) get tie up in this sit­u­a­tion. I doubt he do any­thing out of the way. From what I hear, he fall. But I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure.”

Asked if his rel­a­tive and the de­ceased had a good re­la­tion­ship, he said, “Even if it was good, they al­ways had (bick­er­ing).”

He de­nied hav­ing any re­la­tion­ship with the de­ceased, but not­ed he was ar­ro­gant at times, es­pe­cial­ly if he drank al­co­hol.

The rel­a­tive said he worked hard to raise his chil­dren and urged the de­tained teenag­er to stay pos­i­tive.