Boy, 16, shot dead in Belmont

A BELMONT family’s plans for the long Easter weekend were tragically dashed, when four heavily-armed men stormed their home, shooting dead a 16-year-old schoolboy and critically wounding his 13-year-old female cousin, during the early morning hours of Good Friday.

And while the slaying of Jamal “Brother” Jerome has left his relatives in tears, residents of Gonzales, Belmont have threatened to purchase guns and take the law into their own hands if the police do not catch his killers. “Tell the police that the LA crew will get guns and there will be a blood-bath because we are not taking Jamal’s death just so,” shouted an angry male resident who refused to give his name. And while police sources said they officially had no motive for the shooting, they are working on a report that the gunmen had gone to the home to execute a man who had witnessed a recent murder. Police believe that in the darkness, the intruders gunned down Jerome whom they mistook for the witness.

According to police reports, around 4 am yesterday, four men — three armed with pistols and the other with a shotgun — went to a house at Gonzales Terrace, Belmont and shouted, “Police, police open up”. When the occupants of the house refused to open, the men broke down a door and entered the house. “The men just came into the bedroom and open fire, shooting Jerome in his chest and hands. Jerome bawl out “Oh god what is that one” and then lay back still on the bed,” cried Petra Jerome, the dead boy’s aunt. When the gunmen were leaving the house, they fired at the window of the bedroom where Jerome had been shot, striking 13-year-old Sheriffa Jerome in the right side of her chest. Both wounded teens were taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where Jamal was pronounced dead-on-arrival while Sheriffa underwent emergency surgery. “Right now my daughter lying in a critical condition. The operation was successful but she lose a lot of blood and she still badly off,” Petra said. Sheriffa remains in critical condition at Ward 22.

Visiting the scene were Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes, Supt Errol Denoon, ASP Henry Millington, Insp Glen Sylvester and Sgts Ganpat Meetoo and Creighton Hudson. Jerome was a Form Five student at Success Laventille Secondary School while Sheriffa had just completed her SEA exams at the Mujasa Al Muslimeen primary school, located at the back of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen headquarters off Mucurapo Road. Jamal’s parents are currently in the United States. His mother has been informed of his death and is making arrangements to return home. “They just come in and shoot up the place, not caring that there was plenty children in the house at the time” Petra cried. The police who arrived on the scene recovered a quantity of spent shells in and around the house, whose walls were riddled by gunshots. An autopsy will be carried out on Jamal’s body on Tuesday at the Forensic Sciences Centre, Federation Park, St James. Up to late yesterday no arrests had been made and Insp Glen Sylvester of Belmont CID, is continuing investigations.