When women and children start getting shot, it is a sign that society is decaying, that there is a cancer plaguing. The analogy was made by a relative of Tehera Kerr who along with her son, Taheem Dunbar, was shot while on their way home in Laventille on Tuesday night.
The man who did not want to be named said the state of the country was decaying if an innocent child and his mother can be shot while on their way home. According to police 17-month-old Taheem and his mother were standing outside their Block 22 home when gunmen fired three shots, hitting the mother in the right leg around 8 pm.
The bullet exited the woman’s leg and entered the left side of the child’s abdomen, stopping after hitting his small intestines. The mother and son were taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and then transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. Baby Taheem underwent emergency surgery and is now in a stable condition at hospital.
When the T&T Guardian visited mother and child yesterday the child was asleep and the mother, walking with a limp, hovered over her child as a nurse took his vital signs. The child had intravenous access on both feet and bandages around his torso. Relatives said he “is a strong child” and was not taking off his bandages.
Speaking with the media yesterday Kerr, a nurse at the St James Health Facility, said her family was coping with the tragedy as best they could. “He was shot in the belly. The doctor say everything is okay so far. As a mother I don’t even know what to say. “We was in the yard and I didn’t even realise he did get shot. It was only when he started to scream and vomit we realise. I live up there all my life and nothing like this ever happen,” Kerr said.