Despite his mother’s heartfelt pleas to stay away from Charles Street, La Romaine, teenager Mickel Thomas’ persistence in liming with his friends there ended in tragedy when he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on Saturday.
Thomas, 19, of Nice Street, died while undergoing emergency treatment at the San Fernando General Hospital yesterday, leaving behind to mourn his pregnant girlfriend.
According to Thomas’ older brother Ryan, the teen went to watch movies at his God-brother’s home along Charles Street around 4 pm. While there, he got a phone call from someone telling him to come pick up a barbecue chicken meal.
As he rode his bike out to a junction however, a white Nissan AD Wagon pulled in front him and three men with automatic arms jumped out and shot him. The men then got back into the car and left. Neighbours immediately took him to the hospital, but he died within minutes.
Struggling to fight the tears yesterday, Thomas’ mother, Dionne, said for days people had been warning her that a drug dealer in the area had put out a hit on her son. She said a friend even advised her to get Thomas out of La Romaine. But she said despite warning him, he remained adamant that he had done nothing to anyone. She admitted that his friends sold drugs for the dealer and Thomas had an exchange of “small talk” with the dealer’s stepson.
“It is not now they have been threatening to kill my son, but I never had the thought they would have done such a thing like this,” Dionne said.
She said neighbours told her the same car used in the murder was seen driving around Nice Street and slowing down at their house on Friday night and that there were men hiding in a track between Nice Street and Charles Street, and they were asking for Thomas.
“My son was a loving son, not disrespectful to anyone and he was a hard working child. He just used to lime in Charles Street with his friends, his God-brother and that was just Mickel right through. He loved to lime all the time.”
She said Thomas had recently completed a welding course at a Servol Life Centre and was job hunting. Police had not held anyone for the murder up to last night.
And in what police believe was a reprisal for Thomas’ killing, Gary McLaren was shot along George Street, La Romaine, around 4 pm yesterday. He was hospitalised last night undergoing treatment for a gunshot to the chest.
Police are also trying to determine whether the shooting of Stephon Gonzales on Saturday night was linked to Thomas’ murder.
A report stated that around 11.30 pm Saturday, Gonzales, 39, was liming with some friends along the George Street when a Nissan AD Wagon slowed down from a distance and its occupants opened fire. He was later found lying on the ground bleeding from gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital where he remained warded in a stable condition yesterday.
A team of officers led by Sgt Dale Ramroop responded and found several .40 calibre shells at the scene.