The mother of Kevin Batson, 22, who was shot dead following a robbery in Linden, admitted that her son committed a crime but she is contending that he should not have been killed.
Batson was on Wednesday killed while his accomplice arrested following a robbery at a hardware store in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The young man’s mother, Raynetta Valladares explained that she does not condone the actions of her son but she believes the incident could have ended differently.
“According to what I heard, because I wasn’t there; I heard that the shop man shoot Kevin and when Kevin run, he surrender, put up a red bandanna waving. That is what the witness them saying, and the Police them still shoot Kevin. About two shots after the man already shot him. So, I’m very hurt about the situation, because they murder my child but I don’t know who is the Police that went on the scene…nobody is telling me anything,” Valladares told this publication on Thursday.
The mother admitted that “the fact remains, he wasn’t to go and do what he went to do. I’m a mother and I don’t encourage certain things…but at the same time I feel like the police wasn’t to kill him.”
“I think they should’ve arrested him and let he stand trial and do he time…but I don’t know who to go to, what to do to get justice for him but I’m just going to bury him and let God have his way,” Valladares said.
She described her son as a very “short tempered” individual who had moved out from her home about two months ago following an argument. At the time of the incident, he was staying with friends.
“He does get angry fast and you can’t talk to he. He does get vex quick and I does can’t deal with it so he went with his friends them staying,” Valladares explained.
She indicated that apart from that, her son was a very loving and giving child.
“If he gets something and you need it, he would give you, that is how he was but he was very high tempered. I wouldn’t run away from the fact but he was a very loving child.”
She noted that prior to Wednesday’s incident, her son was never involved in any criminal activities to such magnitude.
“You would hear people saying he always in a ‘cuss out’ on the corner and a fight, he get chop up over a lighter and these things but to hear he went and thief, I never hear that,” Valladares said.
Batson, who was unemployed at the time of his death, reportedly robbed a businessman at his hardware store situated at One Mile, Wismar.
Batson was armed at the time of the robbery and had discharged a shot as he was fleeing the scene.
