Nine-year-old boy shot in suspected drug-related crime

Cyon Paul, 9, died from a single bullet through the heart. This was the finding made by pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov during a post mortem on the boy's body at a Forensic Science Centre, in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Guardian and the Newsday reported on Monday that the child had been shot four times and that he was probably the target of killers in a drug-related crime. However, Dr Alexandrov described the child's cause of death in a telephone interview with the Express. He said: “The boy was shot just one time. The bullet hit his left arm, re-entered the left side of his chest and perforated his left lung and his heart. It exited through the right side chest”.

He said : “The big question is, was it execution or not? Definitely not”.

Paul, a first standard pupil of the La Romaine RC primary school lived with mother Safiya Williams at Byron Street, La Romaine. At around 9 p.m last Friday, he was walking to a hot-dog stall near his home, in the company of a 13-year-old cousin, when he was shot. Police told the Express that the shooting happened during a robbery nearby. Paul collapsed, and his mother came running. Police officers on patrol took the child to hospital where he died.

Police officers still have no suspects and an appeal is being made for witnesses to come forward.

Dr Alexandrov said that the wounds suffered by the boy meant he had no chance of surviving. “It was non-survivable” he said.

He said that in an execution-style killing where the person was the intended target, the shooter would be in close proximity and usually facing the victim. The targets for execution is usually hit in the head or chest. The usual situation is that the front of the victim's body is in the line of fire, exposed to and facing the firearm".