Nine-year-old killed on way to buy hotdogs

Paul, of Byron Street, La Romaine, was a pupil of the La Romaine RC School. Police investigators believe the schoolboy was not the intended target by the gunmen. They believe he was struck in his upper body by a stray bullet.

According to reports, at about 8.30 pm on Friday, Cyon left home with his cousin Kenika Small, 13, to purchase hotdogs from a businessplace at the nearby Potato Street.However, upon reaching a service station along the Southern Main Road, several gunshots rang out. Cyon and Kenika turned around and started to run but Cyon collapsed in the driveway of a businessplace.

He was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital via a police vehicle, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Police said at the time of the shooting, scores of patrons liming in front of the nearby bar- Toroue Turn- scampered for safety.

Speaking with Sunday Newsday yesterday, Cyon’s bereaved uncle, Simeon Morris, recalled that just moments after the two children left to purchase the hotdogs, four gunshots rang out.

Cyon’s mother, Safiya Williams, 27, a mother of two, also ran to see what had happened.

“From here, we heard four gunshots. We went out the road to see what was going on and we saw Kenika running.

She told us that they (she and Cyon) heard the gunshots and they started to run back.

While running he said, ‘Ouch’, and then he collapsed,” Morris said.

Relatives found the little boy clutching his chest and gasping for breath on the ground, covered in blood. His mother, Williams, held him and coaxed him as they awaited the arrival of the police.

The grieving mother was asleep when Sunday Newsday visited the family’s home yesterday and relatives admitted she was very distraught.

With tears in his eyes, Morris yesterday added that Cyon was a very loving child who respected his elders.

The uncle added, “At one time Cyon said he wanted to become a police or lawyer. He also loved football and dancing.

“Cyon loved his dog Rambo and was very kind. He would do anything people asked him to do.” Cyon’ grandmother, Janet Charles, 48, wept openly saying the child was like her own son as she often took care of him.

“He is the eldest of my four grandchildren,” she wailed.

“Cyon was like my own. Today Cyon was supposed to go out with his father to buy schoolbooks.” Cyon was the elder brother to Tyra, age six. It was “normal”, relatives said, for Kenika and Cyon to go together to purchase items from the nearby businessplace. Kenika lives at Lucky Street, La Romaine, and is a pupil of the Anstey Memorial Anglican Primary School, San Fernando.

Snr Supt St Louis- Pesnell, Supt Samaroo, ASP Ramdeo, Insps Persad and Gajadhar, Cpl Mohammed and other officers of the Southern Division and Homicide Bureau (Region III) visited the scene. Residents yesterday charged that La Romaine was fast “becoming like Laventille” and called on police to “do their job efficiently” to reduce crime in the area.

No one else was injured in the shooting and police continued their search yesterday for the gunmen.

On Thursday, officers of the Southern Division recovered a shotgun and seven rounds of high-powered ammunition hidden in a bag in some bushes at Nice Street, La Romaine.