16-year-old Laventille pupil among three gunned down
A revenge attack was blocked by the police yesterday, about an hour after a Laventille schoolboy was murdered while walking out of a trade school on the first day of school.
The group of about six men had items that looked like weapons stuffed in their front pockets and were attempting to run into the Beetham Gardens when they were chased back into the hills by a team of heavily armed police officers who were on the scene of the murder in Laventille.
The police also arrested two men from Beetham Gardens for the murder.
“Allyuh see how it does be, eh?” said one senior officer to the Express.
The murder victim is Kazim Maxine, aged 16.
He lived with his father and mother in Eastern Quarry, Laventille, and his home overlooked the Laventille Technology and Continuing Education Centre which he attended, off the Eastern Main Road, Laventille, near to the Citrus Growers Association.
According to Maxine’s father, Peter Maxine, yesterday was his son’s first day at the trade school.
He said his son was an electrical installation pupil at his last school, Russell Latapy High School in Morvant, and it was a field he was interested in.
He said his son got into “some trouble” a while ago although he did not want to mention what this trouble was; it was the boy’s mother, Maria Maxine, who decided he had to go to the trade school to keep out of trouble.
Around 2 p.m. while Maxine and another friend were walking out the school, they were approached by two men who police said were walking from Beetham Gardens. One of the men had an automatic pistol while the other had a 9 mm.
They opened fire on Maxine, hitting him 12 times. His friend however remained without a scratch.
At the time, Maxine was wearing his blue-coloured overalls, a pair of boots and a white vest. He died on the spot.
Police arrived on the scene very quickly and using surveillance video were able to arrest the two suspects for Maxine’s murder. They were being questioned by officers of the Homicide Bureau and the Gang Investigation Unit up to last night in relation to other murders as well.
As Maxine’s body lay by the entrance to the trade school, scores of his relatives and friends began gathering on the scene.
The area was also teeming with well-armed police officers in operational wear, along with a few soldiers.
Some time around 3.30 p.m., a group of police officers were seen running east along the main road towards a side street that leads to Eastern Quarry. Apparently, they had noticed a group of men was attempting to sneak past them to cross into Beetham Gardens.
They all wore three-quarter pants which bore suspicious-looking bulges in the front pants pockets.
As the men saw the police running after them, they turned around and headed back into the hills from where they had come.
The Express also walked over to the police and enquired what was going on.
“Them fellas and them was looking to tack-back but we stop them, nah, but ah glad the media see what we does be going through,” said a senior officer.
As the Express stood by, a group of men from Beetham Gardens was seen in the distance making gun-shooting signs and openly taunting a group of men from Laventille who stood glaring from a basketball court.
They, too, were making threatening signs to the group from Beetham Gardens.
Homicide Bureau officers are continuing investigations.
The murder toll stood at 256 up to last night.
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