EARL ELIE, Snr Supt, Tobago Division, has revealed that children as young as 12 are becoming involved in gang activity.
He was speaking at a Tobago security council stakeholder meeting at the Hochoy Charles Administrative Complex, Calder Hall, on January 9.
The meeting, chaired by Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, examined the strategies being implemented to mitigate the negative impact of the state of emergency (SoE) on the island’s tourism sector. The SoE came into effect on December 30, 2024.
Elie was responding to a question from Curtis Williams, president of the Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce, about how the THA and leadership of the Tobago Division felt on learning that a 15-year-old schoolboy was the island’s first murder victim for 2025.
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The body of Beris Joseph, of Golden Lane, was discovered on a road in Mt Hay on January 4. He was known to police and wanted for questioning over a shooting.
Elie said gangs were targeting young people.
“There is a trend not just in Tobago but in Trinidad and Tobago, which I can speak in terms of where we see the gangs focusing more on young persons,” he said.
“In the Tobago space, we have information of persons as young as 12 years old involved in that sort of activity. And this is becoming even more and more popular.
“The primary age for inclusion in gangs is from early teenage until 22, 23, 24, that kind of age group. That is the age group where you get involved in the gangs, and it is becoming more and more focused on the younger ages.”
Elie said Joseph “was not what we would call a squeaky-clean young man.
“He would have been involved in certain activities. I don’t want to mention it, unfortunately.”
He said 15-year-old boys are very impressionable
“So imagine you take a firearm and place it in the hands of a young, impressionable guy who may not be thinking the way he should be thinking.
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“That creates a certain sense of false power in that young guy, and this is why the gangs are focusing on persons of that age group, because they are very impressionable and they can be easily misled.”
The senior police officer said parenting is important.
“They say you really see your child if you hide and look at them. If you hide and look at your child, you might not believe that that is your child.”
He said although many parents are doing what they are supposed to, “The underworld is getting to our children. “So we, as parents and adults, need to do a little more, because obviously what we are doing is not enough.”
Elie said parents must also look out for the neighbour's children.
“Focus on the days when it took a village to raise a child.”
Augustine said he was saddened by Joseph’s murder.
“I taught for seven years, and what I saw was a child that could have easily been a student of mine – the age he was at, a fifth-form student, who should be preparing for examination, his whole life in front of him, potential not yet birthed.
“That is all just killed in a moment, shut down, stifled, never to be had again.
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"Tobago stands to lose, because we have lost part of our future productive sector, and so you could never feel well,” he said.
Augustine said he learnt about the incident in church “and I couldn’t think about anything else the pastor was saying.
“By the time I got home, I saw videos that purports to show the young man brandishing guns and throwing up gang signs, which says to me that we have a problem.”
Saying Joseph was exposed to all of the privileges other children enjoy, Augustine said he still felt the need to display antisocial behaviour.
“It is an opportunity for me to say quite frankly that here we have a young man for whom we have provided free education, free transportation, free meals, free teaching, free access to the examinations. In other Caribbean territories, you have to pay for their CXCs. We provide free books and free extra-curricular activities, free everything.
"And still a life of crime got to this young man, which negates the position that some in the space make that perhaps we need to give more free things and that will stop the crime.
“Clearly, the THA could give everything and we could still end up in this place if people don’t take personal responsibility, if parents don’t parent, if communities don’t guide strictly their youngsters.”
