(Trinidad Express) The distraught cries of a father and his sister echoed throughout the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, after they identified the bullet-riddled body of 17-year-old Nickosi Trim, who was shot to death in Laventille just hours before.
“Them fellas have to do better than that, man! They can’t be killing people children for no reason! Nickosi wasn’t in anything! He just wanted to be a mechanic! Oh God!
“They can’t be killing people children so! I am a mother of four, and right now it hurting me deep down in my belly to know that my nephew was taken away like that!
“This violence thing, this war thing need to end! We have to come together as one as a people and live in peace! Forget about who is this and who is that, because it not making any sense!
“We need to live as one instead of taking each other’s lives because it is the innocent that are paying in blood for allyuh war!” Trim’s aunt, Marcia, shouted in the presence of reporters yesterday.
The grieving woman recalled that on Thursday night, Trim was at his home in St Barbs Road, Laventille, washing clothes for the following day.
Around 9 p.m., he ran out of soap, and deciding that the was also thirsty, he told his grandmother he was going to a nearby mini-mart along the roadway to purchase soap, juice and biscuits.
She said Trim’s grandmother chastised him about going to the shop at such a late hour, but allowed him to go.
When Trim arrived at the store, several people were liming nearby, and at this moment, a black Nissan Tiida car pulled up in front of the mini-mart and the occupants of the car opened fire on the group before fleeing the scene.
Trim was hit eight times about his body, while another individual, a 20-year-old man, was hit once in his upper right leg.
No one else was injured.
The police and emergency health services were notified and both injured parties were rushed to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where they were both treated.
Trim died around 2.58 a.m. yesterday.
At the Forensic Centre, relatives said they were still in a state of shock and they were still trying to come to terms with the incident.
“He was a normal, quiet little boy. He loved football, and wanted to be a mechanic when he grew up. And he was such a tiny little boy, he never used to trouble anyone. We used to call him bachac because he was so small. And funny enough, he was the oldest, but the smallest one out of his two other siblings,” Marcia Trim said.
The grieving woman recalled that she knew her nephew was going to die when he entered the operation theatre last night.
“Before he went into the operation theatre, I looked at him and said ‘I love you, you know. I love you right?’ He said, ‘Aunty yes, I know.’ and they took him. We all went outside and then out of the blue a white dove come and land on the tree above us. And as it landed my pores raised and I knew he was dead,” Marcia Trim recalled.
The killing brings the murder toll to 316 for the year thus far compared with 303 for the same period last year.
Police sources told the Express that they had information regarding one of the men who killed Nickosi Trim and an arrest was expected soon.
The Express was told that from the information gathered by police, it was not believed Trim was the target of the shooters, but rather that he was an innocent bystander who was “caught” in the ongoing gang war in Laventille between the Rasta City gang and the Muslim Gang.
