25 bullets for schoolboys

The two were pulled out of a private-hire (PH) taxi along Picton Road in Laventille on Thursday and riddled with bullets. The quantum of gunshots were revealed by relatives who spoke with Newsday outside the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday.

Mark was shot between five to ten times while Denilson was shot ten to 15 times, said relatives who insisted both were killed out of “spite”. Family members said an ongoing turf war in Laventille has the entire community living in fear of violent death. Not only did relatives speak on the violence but they also said a teenaged gangster was the one who pulled the trigger and ended the lives of the schoolboys.

“They did this out of spite!” said Mark’s uncle who asked not to be publicly named.”My nephew was in form three. He was real cool, he would always listen to his mother. It seems like certain people had a problem with people from Soogren Trace.

Now, we are afraid of even coming out on the road. They (the police) are only protecting places in town where the money is flowing, but what about people’s lives on the hill,” he asked.

Denilson’s brother who also asked not to be named, said he last spoke with Denilson on Thursday morning.

“The last thing he said to me was he would message me on whatsapp,” the brother said.

Relatives claimed the order to kill the teens came from a man deported from Canada who has affiliations with one of the gangs in Laventille. It is being said on the streets that the gunmen were so heartless, that after the shooting gunmen were seen laughing and saying, “we killed them like dogs!” Newsday was also told of a phrase, ‘five for five’, which meant at least five bullets for both teens.

“The killer is a teenager not yet twenty,” said a relative. “He is a dark skinned boy who is always busy, busy about the place. It’s a little group of people causing all this trouble in the area and no one is doing anything about it,” he added. “He used to go to lessons and and I told him, ‘Denilson stop going’, because them fellas used to watch him real hard. A dark skinned fellar was always watching him.

There is a war going on with the Rasta and Muslim gangs and we live on the Rasta side.

“But my brother was not in any gang. He was always inside playing video games and messaging on whatsapp.

And since we get wifi (wireless internet), was now he stayed inside.

I used to tell him he should go outside and thing and he used to tell me, ‘you see where we living...you want me to come outside?’ That was my brother,” Denilson’s relative said.

No arrests have been made in the murders as police sources said several persons were interviewed since the slayings.