DEATH OVER SMALL TALK

EAGER to play football as he celebrated his 16th birthday yesterday, Noah Simmons woke up early and went across to his cousin’s house for a cup of tea.

It was there a man met him shortly after 8am and warned him to stop speaking to a girl from the community.

Noah, a Form Four student of the Shiva Boys’ Hindu College, told the man, “It’s not that serious, I talk to everybody.”

In response, the man pulled out a gun, told Noah, “Yuh want to see how serious it is?” and shot him dead.

The man then casually walked off, firing off two more rounds before he disappeared on the Line in Marabella.

The exchange was heard by several eyewitnesses who reported seeing the man walking away from Noah’s body. One eyewitness told the Newsday the man made no attempt to hide the gun used in the murder.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the eyewitness said Noah’s murder stemmed from jealousy.

“Them other boys don’t go to school or do anything with their life and Noah was going to a good school, he was playing football and because he was a good-looking boy, plenty girls used to talk to him,” the witness said. “The girl he get kill for used to pass and hail him out sometimes. He was never in anything with the girl.

“He kill the boy over stupidness, he was jealous of Noah.”

Noah’s grandmother Lystra Simmons told Newsday she was in her kitchen when she heard the first gunshot.

She said she and her family have lived in Union Park East, Gopaul Circular Drive, Marabella, for 40 years.

“I woke up this morning, told Noah, ‘Happy birthday,’ and he told me he was going to the Crisis Centre to play football today,” Simmons recalled. “He said he was going by his cousin for a cup of tea, and I told him okay.”

Minutes later, she heard the gunshot, saw Noah slumped on the staircase through a window, and ran outside.

As she watched undertakers remove Noah’s body, a trembling Simmons said too many young men in the community are turning to guns.

“They fire off shots all hours of the day and night like it is some kind of game. I ask someone the other day if they trying to shoot the moon out of the sky. It didn’t have any reason for him to shoot my grandson. Noah never interfere with anybody.”

Noah’s parents were both in Tobago yesterday and Simmons said his mother was preparing to come home.

The second of eight children, he was remembered as a loving, joyful child. Simmons said he played football for his school and the Marabella Family Crisis Centre.

Simmons said her son, Damien Simmons, was also gunned down on his birthday, January 30, 2017.

Insp Don Gajadhar and other homicide officers visited. Gajadhar said police were told Noah was killed over a girl, and investigators were searching for a suspect from the area who is believed to be in his late teens.

Police found three spent shells at the scene.

Noah’s body was taken to the Forensic Science Centre, where an autopsy is expected to be done today.