PAULINE LA BORDE, the mother of murdered Maloney schoolboy Antonio La Borde, says she believes he was killed because of the company he kept.

La Borde said she felt terrible that such an incident, which was regular in the community, came knocking at her door.

Antonio, 15, a student of the Mt Hope Secondary School, was shot eight times while in the roadway outside Building 15 in Maloney on Thursday evening. Two of his attackers came out a vehicle and opened fire on him. The boy, who wanted to become a soldier, was taken to the Arima District Hospital by members of the T&T Defence Force, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The officers were in the area when they responded to the sound of gunshots.

Yesterday, his mother said, "I don't know how I would live without him. I never expected it (murder) to come home and he was so close to me."

La Borde also took the police to task, saying they were not doing what was necessary to effectively solve murders, particularly those in the Maloney district.

"The police not doing their work. People afraid to go forward as witnesses because they would get killed. They need to do something about the way they treat with witnesses because they (criminals) just killing over and over and over, and they just rejoicing, and they (police) ain't doing nothing about it."

Of her son, she said, "He wasn't a rude boy and he loved to play with the children in the neighbourhood. I don't know how they would make out without him. This ain't no easy thing as a mother to see you child get kill at a tender age. He now start to live and enjoy his life."

She said Antonio, who enjoyed playing football, had a pending gun matter before the court and only last week was released on bail from the Youth Training Centre in Arouca. She denied knowledge that Antonio was involved in robberies in the Maloney area. She added vengeance remains that of the Lord.

"It have a God and he will deal with them. Justice will prevail when he's ready for them," she said.

—Akile Simon