Boy, 15, killed

Police have since detained a 19-year-old youth for questioning about the circumstances surrounding the killing of Ricardo John, a student of Barataria Senior Secondary School.

Homicide investigators are also searching for a 30-year-old man who they believe removed the gun from the scene of the shooting.

Investigators said John died, at about 1 pm, at a house on Fatman Lane, Prizgar Lands, Laventille.

Police reports indicated that John, the 19-year-old and other boys were playing with a loaded semi-automatic pistol which fired and killed him. John sustained a single shot to the head.

John lived at Victoria Avenue, a short distance from Fatman Lane which the police blocked off as a crime scene. officers searched the narrow lane and the house.

Investigators said John’s parents Gillian Cummings and Kingsley John were taken to the house to identify his body.

In preliminary statements to the police, the couple described their son as an avid footballer who wanted to play for the national team and said he was active in several sports at school.

Sources said the couple could not offer any information about what their son was doing at Fatman Lane or if he knew anyone who owned a gun.

Few residents were willing to say anything about the shooting although one person spoke about John. “He was a child with promise and great potential,” said the onlooker.

The shooting death of John follows the killing of another teenager, Kimberly Tiffany Monderoy, who died at hospital on Sunday evening after she got shot in the crossfire between rival gangs in Diego Martin.