Court told of struggle for a gun

THE LAVENTILLE teen who is before the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court charged with the murder of another teenager, yesterday told the court that he never told the police that he had fired two shots at anyone or that he had dropped the gun when he saw that the man had continued running. The teen also told the court that the body of the person he was shown on the concrete bench at Picton Road, Laventille, may not be that of the person he had earlier struggled with, since the body was bareback, while the person he had struggled with was wearing a white jersey. He also explained that he was unable to tell what the two men looked like, since the area was dark and he was unable to see their faces.

The Laventille teen, Keaton Edwards, was yesterday giving evidence in his defence before High Court Judge Melville Baird in the PoS Second Criminal Court in the trial in which he is charged with the murder of Laventille teen Kwesi “Chin” Kemkaran in February, 2002. Kemkaran was killed while he was liming at Fort Picton, Laventille, with some friends sometime between February 16 and 17, 2002. In his evidence, the teen described to the court a struggle that ensued between him and two men at the Fort on the night of the incident. Asked to describe exactly how the “man in the white jersey” was struggling with him, Edwards explained that the man was slightly bent over and was trying to push him over the edge of the Fort with the back part of his body. He said at the same time the man was trying to aim a gun, which was in his possession, at him. He said the struggle continued between the both of them. He said that when their bodies “bounced” the third time the man tried to push him off the Fort, he heard a loud explosion and he let go of the gun. He said the man let go of the gun at the same time and jumped over some railings.