Working tablet might have saved teen’s life – brother
Published:Saturday | December 19, 2020 | 12:16 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Chances are that if his tablet had been in good working order, 14-year-old Allan Roberts might not have ventured out on Thursday, losing his life in a gun attack that has left his 20-year-old cousin hospitalised, according to his eldest brother Dowayne Henry.
When The Gleaner visited the teenager’s Nannyville Gardens home in Kingston yesterday, no one was at home.
However, Henry, who lives next door to his mother, explained that with classes moved online due to the pandemic, his brother had been spending a lot of time at home on his tablet. In fact, it was a chance encounter that took him away from home.
Allan had complained to his older brother that when plugged in, his tablet was not being charged. After taking the electronic device and tinkering around with other chargers, Henry finally got it working.
“Mi tell him say it a charge and him come over my house see seh it was about 20 per cent charged and me shut it off so that it charge faster,” he recalled.
Relieved that the issue had been resolved, it was only then that the Clan Carty student went outside and saw his cousin, who explained that having fixed his motorcycle, which had been out of service for quite some time, he was going to purchase some gasoline and asked Allan to accompany him.
Shortly afterwards, Allan’s mother got a call that the youngsters had been involved in a motor vehicle crash and immediately took a taxi to the scene.
“We see yellow tape and we say, ‘Yellow tape? This nuh look good’,” Henry told The Gleaner.
Upon identifying themselves, the police informed them that the two young men had been shot, with one having died on the spot.
“We say, ‘What? Gunshot?’”
It is said that the young men were driving from Nannyville along Mountain View Avenue, when on reaching the intersection with Stanton Terrace, they came under attack from gunmen travelling on another motorcycle.
Allan died while his cousin has been hospitalised with gunshot wounds to the groin, right hand, chest, foot and back.
The police retrieved 16 spent casings and one damaged bullet from the scene.
Henry said that the family and the wider Nannyville community are baffled by the attack, labelling it an “innocent killing”.
He described Allan, the youngest of their mother’s five sons, as the “smoothest and coolest” of them all.
“That youth no give no trouble at all. Him not even talk to people,” Henry said.
He believes the full weight of their tragedy which had befallen their sons had not yet hit his mother and aunt and he is fearful that when it does, his mom will have a breakdown.