An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

ann-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro yes­ter­day met with the fam­i­ly of mur­dered teenag­er Zion Roberts, of­fer­ing words of com­fort and as­sur­ing them that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) would do every­thing pos­si­ble to bring those re­spon­si­ble to jus­tice.

Ex­press­ing sor­row over the loss of such a young life un­der still-un­clear cir­cum­stances, Gue­var­ro said the in­ci­dent had prompt­ed an im­me­di­ate in­crease in po­lice pres­ence in the Bel­mont area.

Roberts, 14, of Ser­raneau Road, Bel­mont, was shot around 10 am on Ju­ly 4 while stand­ing out­side the D&D Mi­ni Mart, just steps away from his home. He lat­er died in the hos­pi­tal.

Gue­var­ro con­firmed a meet­ing with Roberts’ fam­i­ly. “In re­sponse to this tragedy, I im­me­di­ate­ly in­creased overt and covert re­sources across Bel­mont, which is an area long im­pact­ed by gang-re­lat­ed vi­o­lence,” the top cop said.

He as­sured, “Our ef­forts re­main fo­cused on jus­tice, pre­ven­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty re­as­sur­ance.”

Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro urged any­one with in­for­ma­tion to come for­ward and as­sist the po­lice in their in­ves­ti­ga­tion while call­ing on the na­tion to keep the griev­ing fam­i­ly in their thoughts.

Speak­ing briefly with the Sun­day Guardian as they ex­it­ed the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain, a close male rel­a­tive of Roberts fought back tears, say­ing, “He just came out to go in the shop.”

Roberts had been stand­ing out­side with sev­er­al oth­er men when a car pulled up and three gun­men got out and opened fire on the group.

The teary-eyed fe­male rel­a­tive dis­missed claims by peo­ple in the area on Fri­day that Roberts had gone to look for work so he could earn mon­ey to help out­fit him­self for school.

Roberts, a Form Two stu­dent at Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School, left be­hind two sib­lings, one aged 19 and the oth­er two.

The male rel­a­tive cried, “It is just tough right now.”

Hav­ing moved out of the area, he said, “I am just fed up of the mur­ders, every time is some shoot­ing or some­thing. I just know my boy was a good boy.”

Smil­ing through their pain, the cou­ple de­scribed Roberts as play­ful, hum­ble and help­ful.

“He is like a spoil child in the neigh­bour­hood,” he said. “Every­body liked Zion.”

They, too, ap­peared un­sure of what may have trig­gered the shoot­ing. “We just want every­one to be safe. We are just fed up with it,” they cried.

Roberts’ au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be con­duct­ed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, to­mor­row.