NAOMI WAS FULL OF JOY

NATASHA NELSON will always remember her of 14-year-old daughter, Naomi, as a child filled with joy. She will miss her dearly this Mother’s Day.

“She really liked pan and best village, if she was here she would have been showing me her dance moves. We used to chat everyday. She was a joyful child and could make you smile. Everyone is missing her,” Nelson shared with Sunday Newsday, at her home on Community Lane, Mt D’or.

Naomi died when she was shot once to the back of the head, during a police shooting with gunmen in Carenage, on May 3.

Nelson, 30, said since then, neither she nor her other children have had a proper meal. Naomi, she said, did not deserve to die but her solace was to leave the tragedy in God’s hands. Naomi will be buried at Carenage Cemetery tomorrow after a funeral, at 1.30 pm, at the L’Anse Mitan recreation grounds, Sea View Gardens.

Nelson said Naomi, her first daughter and second of five children, was supposed to have visited her on the day she died. Instead, she got a call from a friend who told her that her daughter had been shot. Some time later, her ex-husband’s girlfriend, who at the time was hospitalised in labour, called and confirmed that Naomi was killed.

Police reports stated Naomi was one of six people who got shot when gunmen opened fire on officers on patrol, around 7.30 pm, at Big Yard, Carenage. An officer’s bullet-proof vest saved him from critical injury and he was treated for wounds to his chest.

The deaths of Naomi, Keron Eve, 30, and Kareem Roberts, 27, triggered protests by residents causing Western Division police, with support from the Inter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emergency Branch, Emergency Response Patrol and the Defence Force to respond.

Nelson, a housewife, said she does not hate the police as there are good ones but she no longer trusts them.

“I have a little dislike towards the police. I don’t trust them. It have some good police and it have bad ones, I can’t say I hate all police.I was watching the videos of the shooting the night it happen and the stories that the commissioner and them saying, I don’t believe it. The car that drove up, you actually seeing where it was parked. I done know already them story is not the right story,” Nelson said.

During last week’s media briefing, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith presented a diagram whe he said reflected the position of the unmarked police vehicle in relation to where Naomi was shot. An autopsy confirmed that the Mucurapo West Secondary student was shot once to the back of the head. Griffith said he wanted the public to draw their own conclusions as to how the girl was shot.

Residents disputed the police diagram, presenting a map of their own and a photograph of the car parked on a side street and claimed it was not where Griffith said it had been parked.

Roberts was buried on Friday while Eve is expected to be buried this week when his mother returns from the US.

Residents last week said the victims were innocent and police opened fire without warning and without being attacked. Renaldo Sydney, one of the injured, is the godson of the Prime Minister. Sydney was shot once in his right side and was discharged from hospital last Wednesday.

He was about to enter his home when he was shot. Residents and relatives said given Sydney’s connection to the Prime Minister, the head of the National Security Council, they expect the shooting would be thoroughly investigated. The incident is also being investigated by the Police Complaints Authority as well as the police. While Griffith inferred that the bullet that killed Naomi came from a criminal’s gun, the ballistic tests are yet to be completed.

The day after the shooting Dr Rowley visited the area and spoke to Naomi’s relatives. One of them, Kevon James, lamented that his mother Bernadette James was killed by police in 1987 and he wanted justice for his cousin. He said after his mother’s killing there was no justice and he did not retaliate, but he could not promise the same for Naomi.

Rowley admonished James and others to allow the process of law and order to continue. He said: “The first next step is a thorough investigation.” Rowley urged all witnesses to come forward and give their statements. He said there were ways to deal with the situation and if, after the investigation, the officers involved were deemed culpable, they would have to pay the price.

While speaking with James, residents threatened to withhold their votes from the People’s National Movement (PNM) in the Diego Martin West constituency where Rowley is the MP. They said while they wanted the PNM to win the election, the Diego Martin West seat could be lost.