TOBAGO SCHOOLBOY HELD FOR MURDER

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The ar­rest of a 15-year-old To­ba­go school­boy on a pos­si­ble cap­i­tal charge over the week­end has left Ed­u­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Or­lan­do Kerr con­cerned and res­i­dents of the Ply­mouth com­mu­ni­ty wor­ried about the teenag­er’s fu­ture.

The Form Four stu­dent was de­tained on Sun­day as po­lice in­ves­ti­gat­ed the killing of his el­der­ly rel­a­tive, Leon Scot­land.

While his class­mates re­turned to school yes­ter­day for the start of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, the teenag­er spent a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive day in po­lice cus­tody.

Po­lice said the boy and his 70-year-old rel­a­tive be­came in­volved in a heat­ed al­ter­ca­tion at their Ply­mouth home on Sat­ur­day. The dis­pute re­port­ed­ly es­ca­lat­ed, dur­ing which time the old­er man sus­tained a blow to the head.

He was tak­en to Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment but died on Sun­day.

The teenag­er was sub­se­quent­ly de­tained by po­lice.

Al­though he was un­aware of the full cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the in­ci­dent, Kerr de­scribed the mat­ter as both trou­bling and un­for­tu­nate.

“It is trou­bling to hear that a stu­dent has been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with such an in­ci­dent,” he said.

Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rod­hil Kirk con­firmed yes­ter­day af­ter­noon that the mi­nor re­mained in cus­tody as in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the rel­a­tive’s death con­tin­ued. He added that of­fi­cers were be­ing guid­ed by the Chil­dren Act in their han­dling of the mat­ter.

Un­der Chap­ter 46:01 of the Act, spe­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed judges and mag­is­trates hear cas­es in­volv­ing chil­dren in the Chil­dren’s Court. The court deals with child of­fend­ers, chil­dren in need of care and pro­tec­tion, and oth­er mat­ters af­fect­ing mi­nors.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly’s res­i­dence yes­ter­day, no one was at home. The de­ceased man’s ve­hi­cle re­mained parked out­side the prop­er­ty.

Neigh­bours, speak­ing in hushed tones, said the in­ci­dent had shocked the com­mu­ni­ty. Some spec­u­lat­ed that the teenag­er may have been pro­voked.

One res­i­dent, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said she feared the in­ci­dent could have last­ing con­se­quences for the boy.

“I feel sad about what has hap­pened to the young guy be­cause his fu­ture will be in jeop­ardy right now. It is very, very sad. Very un­for­tu­nate,” she said.

The woman de­scribed the fam­i­ly as pri­vate, say­ing they gen­er­al­ly kept to them­selves and rarely in­ter­act­ed with neigh­bours. She said she was at church when the in­ci­dent oc­curred and on­ly learned about it lat­er that evening af­ter re­ceiv­ing a phone call.

A teacher at the boy’s school told Guardian Me­dia the mat­ter was not of­fi­cial­ly ad­dressed by the prin­ci­pal when teach­ers, ad­min­is­tra­tors and stu­dents re­turned yes­ter­day. With the in­ves­ti­ga­tion on­go­ing, she said there was lit­tle the school could pub­licly com­ment on at this stage.

The boy’s ar­rest came on the same day Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in a mes­sage ahead of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, urged stu­dents and par­ents to take ed­u­ca­tion se­ri­ous­ly and avoid ac­tions that could jeop­ar­dise their fu­ture.