Since the year be­gan, two teenagers have been killed: 15-year-old Beris Joseph of Mt Hay in To­ba­go and Arnott Isaac, 16, of Rose­hill, Matelot. Both boys, be­fore they died, were at­tend­ing school—Joseph was a Form Four stu­dent of Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary while Is­sac was a Form Four stu­dent at Matelot Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege.

While a 17-year-old was charged with Joseph’s mur­der, no one has yet been charged for Isaac’s.

Over the past 12 years, chil­dren have trag­i­cal­ly lost their lives due to var­i­ous caus­es, in­clud­ing gun­shot wounds, beat­ings, stran­gu­la­tion, stab­bings, and hav­ing their throats slit. Some al­so per­ished in fires, drowned, or suf­fered fa­tal in­juries while mis­han­dling or play­ing with il­le­gal firearms.

Their lives, once full of po­ten­tial and in­no­cence, were vi­o­lent­ly cut short, rob­bing them of both their child­hood and their fu­ture.

These tragedies have prompt­ed NGOs, civ­il so­ci­eties, re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions, and con­cerned cit­i­zens to de­mand stronger mea­sures to pro­tect and en­sure the safe­ty of chil­dren in a coun­try in­creas­ing­ly plagued by gun vi­o­lence, gang war­fare, and oth­er bru­tal and hor­rif­ic acts.

While some of the per­pe­tra­tors were known to or re­lat­ed to the chil­dren who were mur­dered, many of these cas­es re­main un­re­solved.

This week, the Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions Desk look at how many chil­dren have been mur­dered over the past 12 years, how they died and what has hap­pened to their cas­es.

SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Over the past 12 years, more than 60 per cent of child fa­tal­i­ties were linked to gun-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents, high­light­ing the dev­as­tat­ing toll of gun vi­o­lence on the na­tion’s youth.

Da­ta re­viewed by the Sun­day Guardian re­veals that be­tween 2013 and Jan­u­ary 19 of this year, 67 chil­dren lost their lives—each rep­re­sent­ing a heart­break­ing sto­ry of loss and tragedy.

The chil­dren–50 boys and 17 girls–were be­tween five and 17 years old.

A de­tailed break­down re­vealed that:

• ↓8 chil­dren were 17 years old,

• ↓22 were 16,

• ↓8 were 15,

• ↓10 were 14,

• ↓5 were 13,

• ↓and 14 were 12 years old or younger.

The ma­jor­i­ty of the deaths–21–oc­curred in Care­nage, Mar­aval, Port-of-Spain, Laven­tille, Mor­vant, Bel­mont, and Diego Mar­tin.

Of the 21 who died, all were over the age of 12. Eleven of them (52 per cent) were gunned down in the Port-of-Spain and Laven­tille dis­tricts. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, in cen­tral and south Trinidad, 20 chil­dren were killed, in­clud­ing four in the Mara­bel­la dis­trict and two in Wa­ter­loo.

Sev­en­teen chil­dren lost their lives in ar­eas span­ning from St Au­gus­tine in the East to the North­east­ern re­gion of San­gre Grande. These ar­eas in­clude Mal­abar, Ari­ma, Arou­ca, Mal­oney, Va­len­cia, and Waller­field.

Six of the 17 chil­dren died in Ari­ma be­tween 2022 and 2024. There were three mur­ders in San­gre Grande be­tween 2019 and 2024.

Be­tween 2020 and last year, two chil­dren were killed in Moru­ga. Sin­gle mur­ders were al­so record­ed in Matelot, To­ba­go, Char­lieville, Las Lo­mas, Ma­yaro, Guayagua­yare, and Tal­paro.

Of the 67 deaths, the break­down shows that 12 chil­dren were killed in 2023, the high­est num­ber over the past 12 years. In 2024, eight deaths were record­ed. Ten chil­dren lost their lives in 2022, while sev­en died in 2018. In 2020, 2014, and 2015, there were two mur­ders each.

In terms of cas­es solved: In 2021, 11 chil­dren were killed, but on­ly three cas­es were solved. In 2022, of the 18 chil­dren killed, eight cas­es were solved. In 2023, four out of the 14 chil­dren mur­dered had their cas­es solved.

Gun-re­lat­ed deaths

In Oc­to­ber of 2022, then-act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher as­sured that no stone would be left un­turned in bring­ing the killers of nine-year-old Jo­mol Mod­este to jus­tice.

Mod­este was killed by gun­men who opened fire on a crowd of peo­ple at African Grounds, En­ter­prise. The boy, a pupil of Cara­pichaima RC Pri­ma­ry, was watch­ing a foot­ball match when he was hit in the back of his head with a bul­let.

More than two years lat­er, Mod­este’s fam­i­ly is still await­ing jus­tice. Three days be­fore last year’s Christ­mas Je­re­mi­ah Out­ram was killed while he, a 15-year-old rel­a­tive and her broth­er were play­ing with a gun dur­ing a live video in San­gre Grande. The teens found the il­le­gal gun in a clothes bas­ket.

Out­ram, a stu­dent of Five Rivers Sec­ondary was shot in the head. Last Au­gust, Aliyah San­too, 16, a stu­dent of Guaico Sec­ondary was shot dead at the home of a rel­a­tive in Waller­field. Po­lice be­lieve she was killed when a firearm which an 18-year-old was al­leged­ly “show­ing off” dis­charged by ac­ci­dent.

In 2021, Tami­ka Grif­fith, 16, lost her life un­der sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances in Clax­ton Bay. Grif­fith, a stu­dent of Princes Town West Sec­ondary was shot in the face when a teenage boy was show­ing her a gun which ac­ci­den­tal­ly dis­charged. Chris­t­ian Liv­er­pool, 11, died at his Bel­lamy Street, Ari­ma home in Jan­u­ary 2022 af­ter he was shot in the face with a Smith and Wes­son pis­tol which he found at the house.

Liv­er­pool was a stu­dent of Ari­ma New Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry. In Au­gust 2015, Reuben Reid, 11, al­so lost his life with an il­le­gal firearm in a gar­den at Rich­plain Diego Mar­tin. Reid was with three oth­er boys, one of whom found and picked up a sin­gle-bar­rel shot­gun said to be il­le­gal­ly owned and shot him. The bul­let ripped through Reid’s face, end­ing his life.

The killing of Ezekiel Paria, 11, a Stan­dard Five pupil of East­ern Boys’ Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry last Feb­ru­ary sparked out­rage on so­cial me­dia. Paria’s dream of be­com­ing a pi­lot was short-lived when he was fa­tal­ly shot while rid­ing his bi­cy­cle near his Laven­tille home.

The boy was not the tar­get of the at­tack but was hit by a stray bul­let in his head. The in­tend­ed tar­get was not killed. No one was charged. The case, Guardian Me­dia was told, ran cold.

The si­lence at the Heights of Gua­napo in Ari­ma was bro­ken by the sounds of wail­ing and cries from neigh­bours and the fam­i­lies of Faith Pe­terkin, ten, Ar­i­an­na Pe­terkin, 14, Shane Pe­terkin, 17, and Tiffany Pe­terkin, 19, all sib­lings who were gunned down as they slept in their beds on Sep­tem­ber 22, 2023.

Faith and Ar­i­an­na were pupils at John­son Fin­ish­ing School. Shane at­tend­ed St Joseph Sec­ondary. The killings were con­demned by many.

Con­tin­ues on page 9

Trag­ic deaths

In De­cem­ber 2018, Joash Pan­tin, 13, a stu­dent of Trin­i­ty Col­lege went miss­ing. His body was found in Long­denville not far from his home two days lat­er. The teenag­er had been al­leged­ly raped and stran­gled by his neigh­bour. That same year, Damien Dun­can, 15, a stu­dent of Cara­pichaima High School was chased, beat­en and stabbed in his chest by a group of eight boys in Mara­bel­la. Dun­can was in his school uni­form when he was killed.

Dar­i­an Nedd, 14, suf­fered one of the most grue­some mur­ders when his killers dis­mem­bered and torched his body in a fire that de­stroyed the fam­i­ly’s house in South Oropouche in 2016. Nedd was a Siparia East Sec­ondary stu­dent. His moth­er, Chris­tine ad­mit­ted that her son was not the per­fect child, but she was try­ing to keep him on the right path.

The coun­try was over­come with grief in 2013 when Keyan­na Cum­ber­batch, six, a pupil of St Bar­bara’s Shouter Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry School was killed and her body stuffed in a bar­rel at her Mal­oney Gar­dens apart­ment. Her step­fa­ther Dwayne Lewis was charged.

The coun­try was thrown in­to grief and sad­ness when six-year-old Je­si­ah Mor­ris, his moth­er, MP Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and sis­ter Xi­anne, 25, per­ished in a fire at their Ari­ma home on De­cem­ber 16 last year.

Je­si­ah, Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s pride and joy, was a Sec­ond-Year Full of Grace School pupil. The triple deaths sent shock­waves through­out the coun­try. When Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley first learned about Mor­ris-Ju­lian’s death he said he woke up to dis­cov­er that he was cov­ered in tears.

“To think of los­ing her and be­ing told that she may have been hug­ging her child to her chest as she passed away from the flames ... those of you who have chil­dren, it’s an as­sign­ment that you would nev­er want to have but she had it,” Row­ley told mourn­ers at a memo­r­i­al ser­vice.

A probe has been or­dered in­to the cause of the fire and a re­port has been hand­ed over to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

On Thurs­day night, a tod­dler, Jereem George, died in an ar­son at­tack at his Windy Hill home. Po­lice re­port­ed that at 11.45 pm, his moth­er, Ge­niel George, was at home with her chil­dren when a for­mer ac­quain­tance at­tempt­ed to break in. Af­ter over­pow­er­ing George, the man en­tered through the win­dow. George went to get help from her broth­er, but up­on re­turn­ing, found her house on fire. In the pan­ic, she saved three of her chil­dren but for­got Jereem in­side. De­spite ef­forts by George and her 14-year-old son, they could not res­cue him from the blaze.

List of vic­tims

2025

Jan­u­ary

• Beris Joseph, 15-To­ba­go-Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary

• Arnott Isaac, 16-Matelot-Matelot Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege

2024

Jan­u­ary

• Is­abel­la Teelucks­ingh, 14-Las Lo­mas-Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary

Feb­ru­ary

• Ezekiel Paria, 11-Laven­tille-East­ern Boys Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry

June

• Chris­t­ian Lash­ley, 15-Ch­agua­nas-Ch­agua­nas South Sec­ondary

Au­gust

• Aliyah San­too-16-Waller­field-Guaico Sec­ondary

• Ani­ka Guer­ra-5-Moru­ga-Bloom­ing Schol­ars Kinder­garten

Sep­tem­ber

• Shanelle Singh, 17-New Grant-Ma­yaro Sec­ondary

De­cem­ber

• Je­si­ah Ju­lian, 6-Ari­ma-Full of Grace School

• Je­re­mi­ah Out­ram-16-San­gre Grande-Five Rivers Sec­ondary

2023

Jan­u­ary

• Kylie Mel­oney, 6-San­gre Grande- San­gre Grande Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist Pri­ma­ry

• Dar­shan Ram­nath,16-St Au­gus­tine-St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary

• An­dre Singh, 16-D’Abadie-El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary

March

• Kiel Paul, 14-Va­len­cia-Coryal High School

April

• Za­ya Mor­ris, 8-Siparia-St Brigid’s Girls’ RC Pri­ma­ry

Sep­tem­ber

• Faith Pe­terkin, ten-Heights of Gua­napo-Ari­ma-John­son Fin­ish­ing School

• Ar­i­an­na Pe­terkin, 14-Heights of Gua­napo-Ari­ma-John­son Fin­ish­ing School

• Shane Pe­terkin, 17-Heights of Gua­napo, Ari­ma-St Joseph Sec­ondary

• An­drea Lal­lan, 13-Ma­yaro-St Therese RC

No­vem­ber

• Re­han­na Bha­jan, 14-Char­lieville-Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary

De­cem­ber

• Noel Thomas, 8-Mara­bel­la-Ste Madeleine Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry

• Roshan Adam Ali, 16-Ari­ma-Va­len­cia Sec­ondary

2022

Jan­u­ary

• Chris­t­ian Liv­er­pool, 11-Ari­ma-Ari­ma New Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry

Feb­ru­ary

• Kevin Kyle Spring, 15-Diego Mar­tin-Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary

• Jael Hyles, 14-Port-of-Spain-San Juan North Sec­ondary

• Al­liyah Kandice Alexan­der, 15-Clax­ton Bay-Cou­va West Sec­ondary

May

• Levi Lewis, 12-Pe­nal-Pe­nal RC Pri­ma­ry

Ju­ly

• Kaleb Mar­tineau, 16-Mar­aval-Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary

Au­gust

• Mcken­zie Hope Rechia, 7-Pa­lo Seco-Pa­lo Seco Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry

Oc­to­ber

• Videsh Dookran, 15-Gol­con­da-Ste Madeleine Sec­ondary

• Jo­mol Mod­este, 9-En­ter­prise-Cara­pichaima RC Pri­ma­ry School

No­vem­ber

• Mar­lon Stew­art, 14-Mor­vant-Barataria North Sec­ondary

2021

Feb­ru­ary

• Tami­ka Grif­fith, 16-Clax­ton Bay-Princes Town West Sec­ondary

March

• Akid Duke, 15- Arou­ca-South East Port-of-Spain Sec­ondary

Ju­ly

• Ezekiel Burke, 17-Mar­aval-Blan­chisseuse Sec­ondary

No­vem­ber

• Ja­da Fe­li­cian, 15-Bel­mont-East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary

• Mk­weli Pas­cal, 17-Mara­bel­la- Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary

2020

April

• Ikel Williams, 17-Va­len­cia-Va­len­cia High School

Ju­ly

• Chris­ton Mar­shall, 16-Moru­ga, Bar­rack­pore West Sec­ondary

2019

Feb­ru­ary

• De­Shawn Hit­lal-17-San­gre Grande-San­gre Grande Sec­ondary

April

• Ak­il Phillip, 16-Laven­tille-St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege

May

• Nao­mi Nel­son, 14-Care­nage-East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary

Ju­ly

• Chris­t­ian Smith, 16-Guayagua­yare-Ma­yaro High School

De­cem­ber

• Key­on Gill, 12-Port-of-Spain-San Juan North Sec­ondary

2018

Jan­u­ary

• Joshua An­drews-14,Laven­tille-Mor­vant Laven­tille Sec­ondary

March

• Damien Dun­can, 15-Mara­bel­la-Cara­pichaima High School

April

• ↓Ka­reem Forde, 16-Laven­tille-South East Port-of-Spain Sec­ondary

May

• Noah Sim­mons, 16-Mara­bel­la-Shi­va Boys Col­lege

June

• Joshua James, 16-Laven­tille-Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary

Ju­ly

• Mi­keel Cae­sar, 16-Laven­tille-Ser­vol Learn­ing Cen­tre

De­cem­ber

• Joash Pan­tin, 13-Long­denville-Trin­i­ty Col­lege

2017

Jan­u­ary

• Rachel Ramkissoon, 16-Tal­paro-North­east­ern Col­lege

June

• Videsh Sub­ar, 13-Mal­abar- Ward’s Learn­ing Liv­ing Cen­tre

Au­gust

• Jesse Beep­han, 16-Wa­ter­loo-Wa­ter­loo High School

2016

Jan­u­ary

• Denel­son Smith, 17-Laven­tille- Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary

• Mark Richards, 16-Laven­tille- Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary

March

• Dar­i­an Nedd, 14-South Oropouche-Siparia East Sec­ondary

Sep­tem­ber

• Mo­hammed Ali, 16-Ch­agua­nas-Cara­pichaima West Sec­ondary

2015

Au­gust

• Reuben Reid, 11-Diego Mar­tin-Diego Mar­tin Pri­ma­ry

Sep­tem­ber

• Yaki­ni Charles, 13-Bel­mont-Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary

2014

Ju­ly

• Day­ron Bak­er, 13-Diego Mar­tin-Pat­na Riv­er Es­tate Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry

No­vem­ber

• Sal­im Dalzell, 17-Laven­tille-Suc­cess Laven­tille Com­pos­ite

2013

March

• Lester Richards, 16-Clax­ton Bay-Gas­par­il­lo Com­pos­ite

May

• Re­nal­do Dixon, 14-Wa­ter­loo-Wa­ter­loo Sec­ondary School

• Tishawn Theon Miller, 16-Carlsen Field-Ser­vol Learn­ing Cen­tre

Au­gust

• Kaz­im Max­ine, 16-Laven­tille-Laven­tille Tech­nol­o­gy and Con­tin­u­ing Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre

No­vem­ber

• Keyan­na Cum­ber­batch, 6-Mal­oney-St Bar­bara’s Shouter Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry School