15-year-old Tobago youth stabbed to death

This was the anguished cry of Arletta Price, mother of 15-year-old, Hailey Price, who was stabbed at the Scarborough Port Authority compound on Saturday evening. He became Tobago’s tenth murder victim for 2005.

"I have only seen these things on TV. If anyone had told me that it would happen to me in my young age I would not have believed them. Oh God I need some answers, only you could give them to me," cried the boy’s mother.

"What is life that it could be taken like a fowl? You gave him to me and you take him back so soon?" she said, as she recalled her last conversation with the youngest of her six children.

Hailey, a former student of the Mason Hall Secondary School, was reportedly stabbed several times about the body during an altercation that involved three other 15-year-old youths.

Police sources said that the incident stemmed from an altercation that occured in the Canaan/Bon Accord area approximately two weeks ago, in which Hailey was allegedly beaten by one of the young men.

Police reports say Hailey spotted the young men on the Port compound around 7.30 pm on Saturday and was allegedly "encouraged" to break a bottle on one of their faces before a scuffle ensued. Hailey was reportedly holding one of the young men around the neck when he whipped out a knife and dealt him (Price) three stabs, one to the back and two below his left arm.

The four were chased and subsequently held by Port Authority estate constables.

Police and EHS officials were summoned and Hailey was taken to the Scarborough Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A post mortem conducted yesterday morning by pathologist Hughvon Des Vignes revealed that he died from stab wounds.

His elder brother, Anthony, said that he was unsure of what may have triggered the incident but said his brother was involved in an altercation over the Tobago Fest weekend and recently came home with a "buss head."

He said that Hailey had dropped out of school and was doing on- the-job training at a garage.

Hailey was last seen alive by his mother earlier Saturday evening when he left their Les Coteaux Village home to go to Scarborough and come back home.

Three 15-year-old boys from the western side of the island are currently assisting Scarborough CID officers with their investigations.