Christmas Day ended tragically for 15-year-old Conan Celestine who was shot dead outside the home of his brothers in Chaguanas.
Celestine, from Argyle, Tobago, has been in Trinidad on holiday since November and decided to stay longer to spend Christmas with his brothers. However, that decision proved fatal and he was murdered in what relatives believe was a case of mistaken identity.
Celestine was sitting on a wall outside his brothers' home at Phyllis Lane Ext, Enterprise, with his friend Nathaniel Gittens, 14, when around 7.15 pm three men drove up in a silver Nissan Tiida.
The man seated in the back of the car opened fire on the teens and Celestine, a trade student at a Roxborough school, fell over the wall after being hit several times in the head and chest. Gittens, of Longdenville, was struck on his left hand and ran to the back of the house.
Residents were able to get the car's registration number as the suspects fled the scene but a police trAace showed that it was false.
The teens were taken to the Chaguanas District Health Facility where Celestine was pronounced dead on arrival.
The body was taken to the San Fernando mortuary and is expected to be transferred to the Forensic Science Centre tomorrow for an autopsy.
Gittens was treated and transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where he is warded in stable condition.
Chaguanas police, including Supt Mc Intyre, Insp Teesdale, Sgt Toolaram and Region Three homicide officers visited the scene and launched a search for the suspects but up to late yesterday no arrests had been made.
Celestine's mother, Ann Sterling, who flew into Trinidad yesterday morning, said her son was living with her in Tobago for the past three years. She said he came to Trinidad in early November and told her that he wanted to spend the Christmas holidays with his brothers Joseph Celestine, 19, and Daniel Dyer, 21.
Joseph said his younger brother had been enjoying Christmas Day and had received money, a pair of pants and a pair of "old school" sneakers, which he wore yesterday.
He said they had finished painting and house chores that morning and Celestine fell asleep on the chair.
"I told him to go upstairs and sleep on the bed and we would go by our sisters later for food because we did not cook. We went and he had just come back and he was liming on the wall with his friend. I was in the back street coming home and I heard the shots went off," Joseph said.
"I knew it happened close to my home but I didn't think it was my brother who was shot. About five minutes later I walked across and saw my other brother picking him up and they took him to the Chaguanas health facility."
Police believe Celestine was the target of a hit but could not give a motive for the killing. A relative said yesterday that Celestine had been living in Tobago for the past three years and could not have been involved in anything in Trinidad that would warrant his death.