Morvant boy shot in head improving, says mum

THINGS are looking up for eight-year-old Javan Price who was shot in the head on Tuesday night when gunmen chased after a 38-year-old Morvant man.

In a telephone interview with Newsday on Thursday, Price’s mother Marcia Burke said Javan underwent surgery on Thursday and doctors gave her encouraging news.

“The doctor said the bullet passed through his head. He went back to the intensive care unit. The neurosurgeon explained everything to me. We have to keep on praying for Javan. His skull is fractured.”

At about 7 pm on Tuesday, gunmen got out of a grey Nissan AD wagon at Mon Repos, Morvant and opened fire hitting 49-year-old Eusibio Roberts killing him instantly, police said.

The killers then chased after the 38-year-old man who ran through the basketball court where the children were training for a football competition in the area.

While running, they kept shooting. Price was shot to the left side of his head, and another child, an 11-year-old boy, twice in the leg. The children were taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

The other child, Burke’s neighbour, had one bullet pass through his leg and the other is lodged near a bone. Burke said her eldest son spoke with the child and he told them he was doing well. He remains in hospital as the bullet has to be removed.

Tuesday’s shooting is the second recent in which a child was wounded. On August 1, a ten-year-old girl was among eight people shot during a shootout at Sixth Avenue, Malick. The bullet hit her left leg breaking a bone. She has since been discharged from hospital.

Her mother Carla Mc Intosh offered words of comfort to Burke telling her to have faith.

“There are no words that can express that feeling. God is the only miracle worker. They have to have faith, despite whatever.”

Burke said she accepted the words of encouragement and will be heeding the encouragement to have faith.

Residents told Newsday the shooting sounded like grenades exploding in their yards. One man said his mother fell to the ground and began crying when the shooting started.

Another neighbour said her relative was one of the children who had to run to escape being shot. She said her relative, who has a dislocated knee, managed to run without an issue to escape the gunmen.

When Newsday visited on Wednesday, the area was void of children playing outside – an unusual sight for the July/August vacation.

Residents said, since the shooting children are afraid to play outside.