Youth dies after being shot while entering his yard

Kyle Phillips was not known by his relatives or by people who knew him well, to be a troublemaker.{{more}}

That did not stop two men from waylaying him and shooting him just as he was about to enter his yard on Tuesday night.

Phillips, a 20-year-old resident of Spring Village, Lowmans Leeward, after being shot in his stomach and left hand, was able to run to the home of friends some distance away, seeking help.

They took him to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Kyle’s mother, Mavis Phillips, told SEARCHLIGHT that she, like others in the community, heard loud explosions that caused her to rush out of her home, to see what was taking place.

She said that when she came out the house she saw two men in her yard.

“I was right here laying down in this couch watching the Bold and Beautiful when I heard the shots; it was a little about 10 past nine.

“I heard two first and by the time I buss the door, I heard another one. I was out here and see the guys them running across there,” Kyle’s mother said, as she pointed to an area in her yard from where the men fled after the shooting.

The mother of five said that she didn’t realise at the time that her son was the victim of the attack.

She said that after the men ran, family members started calling the phone Kyle had borrowed from her earlier that night, before he made his way to a cousin’s home not too far from where he lived.

It was not until about 20 minutes later, when his friends answered the phone, that his family was told that he had been shot and was at the hospital.

His mother said she rushed to the hospital to be at her son’s side before he passed away.

Phillips, a former student of the C.W. Prescod Primary and the Bethel High Schools, was unemployed, but had just got an NIS card, in preparation for employment on the rehabilitation of the South Leeward Highway, a project that is scheduled to begin in a few months.

According to Mavis, on May 1, Kyle was accosted by a knife-wielding attacker, who chased him into the home of a neighbour. She said she did not know the reason for the incident, because as far as she was aware, her son did not interfere with others; he was a quiet individual.

Mavis told SEARCHLIGHT that her son had spent some months in the North Leeward area, and had just recently returned home, something that she prayed for him to do.

She said that she did not expect his return would end the tragic way it did, but she was leaving everything up to God.

“I am a person with a lot of faith and I does always say I trust God; what can I do? You have to have faith so I will conquer it.

“We have to be strong because crying is not going to bring him back; you go out the road and you make a load of noise, he is not going to come back; so is better you just leave the authorities and let them do their job.”

Phillips’ death is the 12th recorded homicide for the year, the ninth by gunshot.