National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds says there is no evidence to suggest that gangsters are marking children for death.
This follows a Sunday Guardian exclusive that almost a dozen boys under the age of 17 have lost their lives in the last 22 months due to warring gangs and gun violence.
Within the past week, two children- nine-year-old Jomol Modeste and three-year-old Nazim Owen of La Puerta, Diego Martin- were shot dead in separate incidents.
This prompted Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob to say that gang members, long ago, honoured a code where women and children were not harmed in disputes, but now that seemed not to be the case.
But speaking to Guardian via a telephone interview, Minister Hinds said it does not appear that children are being targeted.
"From the information available to me it does not appear as though there is any evidence or focus on the part of gangsters, to kill children. A child was killed in Diego Martin and from the reports available to us, it appears as though the child was an occupant of the vehicle which was attacked," Hinds said.
He added that "it appears that nine-year-old Modeste was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"I have information because I visited the area with the police commissioner and the Chief of Defence Staff and other arms of law enforcement. I had the opportunity to speak with residents and people who were close to the nine-year-old and based on what they heard, and based on information Commissioner Jacob had, there was no indication that the child was targeted," Hinds said.
He explained: "But he might have been certainly in the wrong place when these ignorant, empty, gun-toting criminals drove there in a bread van and shot up the place for whatever motivated them, perhaps totally unaware that this nine-year-old was where he was and he fell victim to one of these dirty bullets."
Hinds said the murders are under investigation and so far there has been no information that children are being targeted by gangs.
On Wednesday night Korey Clarke and his wife Samantha Patrick, both 30, were at their Aboud Circular, St James home was shot dead in their bed by gunmen but their seven-month-old daughter was spared.
Police believe as the shooting began both Clarke and Patrick used their bodies to shield the baby girl, who was also lying on the bed.
Last week Acting Police Commissioner Erla Christopher was questioned about the increase in drive-by shootings this year which killed 12 children in the last 22 months and left eight children with gunshot wounds. She said many of these shootings were the result of gang violence."
Joanne Archie, head of the T&T Police Service Corporate Communications Unit said these killings were of grave concern to the TTPS.
She said evidence shows that in some cases, the children's parents were involved in illegal activities. Archie said victims who survive the shootings received counselling from the TTPS' Victim and Support Unit.
