Cop kills boy, 16

Bernaldo Francis, who sold mangoes at a stall in the market, was shot in the back of the head at about 11 pm on Saturday following a fracas outside a club, Genieve Sports Bar at Busy Corner.

Police said they responded to a call that a fight had erupted outside the club between two patrons.

When they got there, Francis, police said, was brandishing a gun and was firing shots at them.

Police said when they confronted him, he ran off.

Francis, the report said, ran through Busy Corner, then along Eleanor Street, but police declined to say whether he had a gun in his hand at the time.

On reaching a car park close to several business places, a shot was fired and Francis fell to the ground, police said. The police officers lifted up the bleeding boy and placed him in a police vehicle, then took him to the nearby Chaguanas Health Centre.

It was later discovered that he had a single gun shot wound in the back of his head.

The bullet was lodged in the nostrils and attempts by doctors to revive him was futile. He died after bleeding profusely from the wound.

Yesterday, his mother, Bernadette Samuel, 49, condemned the killing of her son. The family live at Xavier Street Extension, Perseverance Village, Chaguanas, where Francis was the youngest of eight children.

In an interview at the home, Samuel said she conducted her own enquiries and learned that Francis left a KFC outlet and was on his way to the club with a friend, when they saw police officers approaching in a vehicle. The mother admitted that her son smoked marijuana and she believed that he panicked when he saw the police.

“My son alone started to run and the police officers went after him. Maybe he was scared or had a smoke on him.

“One shot, and this officer killed my child. I cannot get justice because he is already dead, ” Samuel said. Describing her son as a hustler, the mother recalled her final moments with her youngest child, saying that she lent him a gold ring Saturday night because he wanted to go out and lime a bit.

Samuel said, “He said ‘Mamie lend me your gold ring for me to bling.’ She said he then took the ring off her finger.

“When I saw him at hospital, the doctor told me that the bullet struck him at the back of his head and went in his nose,” she said.

Police, she said, found the gun in his crotch but she dismissed this.

“He had on boxers only. If he was firing at the officers would not the gun be found in his hands or something? ” she said.

Francis’ father, Christopher Samuel, fought back tears and was too distraught to speak.