They Tried To Save Him; Now They Mourn Him

The Makin family in Dangriga is still reeling from the cold-blooded killing of their sixteen-year-old loved one Isiah Norales on Sunday morning. Our team visited Dangriga and found a family who tried everything to remove a delinquent adolescent from troubling environments and bad company but efforts to save his life fell tragically short.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting…

“Here in Dangriga, police are investigating the murder of 16-year-old Isaiah Norales. Just after 5:00 AM on Sunday morning, Isaiah was riding his bicycle right here on Penn Road when just after passing that speed bump, two men on a motorcycle ambushed. One of them pulled out a gun and fired several shots at him. Here is Assistant Commissioner of Police Alberto Romero on what their investigation is telling them so far.”

 

ACP Hilberto Romero, Head, National Crime Investigation Branch

“On Sunday around five-thirty a.m. police responded to a shooting in Dangriga. Upon their arrival, they saw a male person with gunshot injuries. He was identified as Isaiah Norales, sixteen years. He was taken for treatment, where thereafter he succumbed to his injuries. Information is that he was riding a bicycle in the Benguche area when a motorcycle with two persons came and one of them fired shots towards his direction causing his fatal injuries. For this murder investigation, we have two persons in custody at this time.”

 

Isaiah had faced adversity his whole life. His mother died when he was just a year old and his father has been incarcerated his whole life. His aunt, Sharilee Makin, stepped in and raised him as her own, surrounding him with the love, guidance, and support every child deserves. And his cousin, Sharwell Makin, was more like a sister than a relative, his confidante and closest companion. Yet even she says she never imagined that someone would want to take the life of the young man she loved as a brother.

 

Voice of: Sharwell Makin, Cousin of Deceased

“ When I get the news, I mi deh out at Y-Not. I saw him there. I hug ah. We talk. Ih noh tell me nothing that nobody gone to ah nothing. So when I – by the time I reach home my lee sister call and say he de da the hospital. Ih get shot. I just bout fi goh sleep. I had to jump up. Me and my ma rushed to the hospital. I, I couldn’t believe. I just see ah, just see ah out there. Noh tell me nothing.”

 

Shane Williams

“What’s the family hoping for at this point? You know that they can’t replace his life, but the family is aware of who are the individuals responsible?”

 

Sharwell Makin

“Yes, we are aware. He was able to say da who so the police have that information and we’re just hoping for justice. We just want justice. We don’t want nothing else, just justice.”

 

Isaiah’s aunt says she sent him to live in Georgetown to get him away from the friends he was associating with in Dangriga. When that didn’t work, she reached out to police for intervention to get him into some program and off the street. Tragically, those warnings went unheeded, and now a promising young man is gone. Despite growing up without his parents, he persevered through life’s challenges, searching for acceptance, purpose, and a place to belong. Today, his loved ones are left mourning a life cut far too short.

 

Voice of: Sharwell Makin

“Everybody have the – get the different version of Isaiah. What I get was somebody very loving. He’s very open. He share everything with me. He was able to tell me everything, so I believe we will get justice.”

 

Shane Williams

Were you… Did he ever mention that his life was in danger or anything to you?

 

Sharwell Makin

“No, never.”

 

While police say they already have two suspects in custody, Isaiah’s family is now planning his funeral and wondering why someone would so brutally kill their teenage loved one. Reporting from Dangriga, I’m Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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