Zwade Alleyne dies; Arima student succumbs to injuries from Maloney shooting

Seventeen-year-old Arima North Secondary form five student Zwade Alleyne died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mount Hope, today.

Alleyne did not recover from his injuries after being shot in the head outside of his apartment in Building 12, Maloney, by an unidentified gunman last Saturday. The gunman remains at large.

Alleyne’s mother, Keisha Bethelmy, and uncle, Keron Bethelmy, had only praise for the medical staff at Mount Hope for their attentiveness and support for Alleyne since Sunday night. (Alleyne’s father, Nigel “Shervy” Alleyne, is a popular ice cream vendor who sells at the corner of Lopinot junction on the Eastern Main Road.)

However, on Monday morning, Alleyne’s condition deteriorated, and they were never able to reverse the slide. By Tuesday afternoon, doctors told the family that the damage to the young footballer’s brain was “irreversible”.

Alleyne’s brain, they said, had been flooded with fluid. There was significant swelling of the brain, too, along with serious nerve damage from his wounds—he was shot near his left ear with the 9mm exiting in the back of his head.

Keron Bethelmy, known as Uncle Keron in the community, refused to give up.

“He is getting worse but he is still alive—his heart is beating strong,” Uncle Keron told Wired868 yesterday. “The doctors have said that his injuries are irreversible and that it is a matter of time. But once his heart is beating, I am not counting him out.”

By Thursday morning, though, the family was informed that Alleyne’s heart beat had slowed. And, at 11.01am, Keisha Bethelmy prepared to perform her final act with her son, she made the announcement via social media: “Zwade has now passed.”

The death pronouncement was the final chapter for a talented footballer, who never got the opportunity to fulfil his promise.

Alleyne was just 15 when he started for Arima North in their 3-0 win over Trinity College East in the 2023 East Zone Intercol semifinals.

The Dial Dynamos went on to win the zonal Intercol crown while Alleyne, a composed midfielder with a fine shot and passing range, scooped up East Zone Under-16 League and Knockout trophies that season, as well.

His performances earned him an invitation to try out for the Trinidad and Tobago National Under-16 team in 2024. However, Alleyne did not make the final national squad and never recaptured his 2023 form with his school.

At club level, Alleyne helped FC Ginga to the NLCL U-15 Community Cup title in 2024. This year, he was a key player for the Maloney Real Footballers as they advanced to the Trinidad U-17 quarterfinal round of the Republic Bank National Youth Football League (RBNYFL) tournament.

Uncle Keron, a former Trinidad and Tobago national youth player and Caledonia AIA midfielder, is technical director of the Maloney team, which counts National Under-15 Team defender and St Anthony’s College player Jaimarley Ali among its squad.

Alleyne’s promising career counted for little on the night of Saturday 10 May, though, as he limed with a few friends outside his front door on the third floor of Building 12.

A gunman, according to sources, was dispatched to the area to shoot up a gambling session. It is believed to be part of a dispute between rival gangs Rasta City and ABG (Anybody Gets It).

Building 12 is located within the geographical area considered to be ABG territory, although neither Alleyne nor his friends were gang members.

The gunman fired from near the street at the first congregation of young men that he saw before running away. Police found 15 spent 9mm casings at the scene.

Alleyne was shot in the head while another boy was grazed.

Uncle Keron overruled the objections of relatives and drove Alleyne to the Mount Hope hospital that night, rather than the nearby Arima General Hospital.

“The last person I carried Arima [Hospital] dead because they don’t have certain things,” said Uncle Keron. “And this is a headshot—I didn’t want to take that chance.”

Violence stalks Maloney—but then that seems to be the way of many at-risk communities at present.

On 15 April 2025, Alleyne’s former Arima North teammate, Ezekiel Ramdialsingh, 17, was shot dead in La Horquetta. And on 19 September 2024, another former Arima North football star, 20-year-old Jayden ‘Mr Smooth’ Moore, was murdered during a botched robbery in D’Abadie.

Yesterday, incidentally, Uncle Keron left his nephew’s side to attend the funeral of another former Maloney resident and footballer, Dacian John. The 36-year-old John, a Coast Guard officer, was murdered during a robbery in Point Fortin on 2 May 2025.

For the past two nights, Uncle Keron said things have been tense in Maloney.

“The community is hurting,” he said. “Parents are telling me that their children can’t sleep and not eating. Boys are constantly calling to get updates on Zwade.”

It is not the only repercussion of Saturday’s shooting.

“I’m hearing that gunmen on the move too,” said Uncle Keron. “The criminal elements from ABG say they’re not taking that so. I heard there were shootings on Sunday night and shootings again on Monday night.

“I will try to talk to them—both sides. A lot of these heads would have been little boys who used to attend my Sunday school or who have children in my Sunday school right now. So, they have a certain level of respect for me.

“All I can do is tell them to repent and to stop the violence. This is not the way, because what a man sows, he reaps.”

Just 32 years old, Uncle Keron has been trying to fix Maloney’s problems through prayer and community spirit for years.

“I used to pick up children from the area, like Zwade, and go in the park on Sunday evenings,” he said of their informal ‘Sunday School’ sessions, “and say a scripture, give them something to eat.”

Once a promising footballer himself, it was natural that his activism eventually led to the revival of the community team, Maloney Real Footballers FC.

After a poor end to his 2024 season, Zwade Alleyne appeared to have been revitalised through the Maloney Real Footballers. He was in the middle of his CSEC examinations, with a lot to look forward to.

But then came a confused gunman.

On Sunday, just hours after the shooting, Alleyne’s condition seemed to have stabilised. He was responsive to his mother and uncle at his bedside.

However, due to the pain and as a precaution against excessive movement, family said doctors opted to induce a coma until the swelling around his brain subsided and they could properly scan for damage.

The hope, then, was that Alleyne would not need an operation.

Doctors, Uncle Keron explained, became alarmed at excessive fluid in his brain, though, and decided to operate at 7am on Monday—to drain the fluids.

However, as they prepared for surgery, it was discovered that the teenager’s platelets had dropped to extremely low levels.

As a result, doctors, according to the family, ruled that it was too risky to proceed and instead gave Alleyne medication to address his platelet count.

Even as Alleyne’s relatives tried to digest that news, the doctors returned with another update. Alleyne’s pupils were swelling, because of the fluids, and they were very concerned.

“They said it is a risk to do this surgery (to drain the fluids) but we have to do the surgery,” Uncle Keron said at the time.

The family members were told that Alleyne’s chances of surviving the operation were 40-60.

“When they were carrying him into the surgery room, we could see the angel of death with him,” said Uncle Keron. “His mother was bawling…”

It was late on Tuesday night that medical staff confirmed Alleyne made it through the operation and would live to fight on.

“When they carried him in, I kneeled in front of the door and prayed,” said Uncle Keron, “and I didn’t get up until they were done… And while I was praying, God gave me the word: John 2:4—his time is not yet come.

“So I know for sure he is going to live!”

It was a temporary reprieve.

Uncle Keron, desperate to counter the danger through prayer, organised the Zwade Prayer and Peace Walk for Sunday afternoon for his nephew. He urged well-wishers to fast for Alleyne.

Maloney rallied. The Arima North Secondary community prayed. Across the country, there were expressions of empathy.

• (Video by Keith Guevara/ Uncle Keron Youth Empowerment Movement.)

On Monday morning, Minister of Education Dr Michael Dowlath initiated moves to re-register Alleyne to sit exams in 2026 at no cost to his family. Counselling was also offered to his schoolmates at Arima North, and Wired868 understands that over a dozen boys had sessions with the school’s support staff today.

Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) general secretary Azaad Khan also expressed “profound concern over the condition of Master Zwade Alleyne” in a statement to Arima North.

“We hope and pray that he makes a full recovery and the League has him in our thoughts and prayers,” said Khan. “Please convey our sentiments to his parents.”

• Maloney Real Footballers pray for Zwade Alleyne on 14 May 2025.

Camille Robinson-Regis, the member of Parliament for the area, said she too was praying for the family and urged the public to do the same.

“I have been in touch with Keisha (Alleyne’s mother) twice since Monday, and I have been following his progress since he was hospitalised,” Robinson-Regis told Wired868. “I know he is in an induced coma, and I’m asking for God’s intervention so that he survives this and comes out on the other side strong.”

But Uncle Keron knew that Alleyne had a long way to go before he could get his life back.

“He is still a high-risk patient,” he said.

By Thursday morning, the fight was over.

A young shooter in Maloney had taken a life. It was not the soul he set out to claim when he wandered into ‘ABG territory’ with a firearm last Saturday—but maybe he does not care.

Alleyne was literally a footstep from his front door when he was struck down. Ramdialsingh had just left a political rally in his neighbourhood, barely 10 minutes’ walk from his Manuel Congo home, when he was killed.

Moore had driven to the Eastern Main Road to buy a burger when an assailant attacked.

In all three cases, there were no arrests.

Death is busy, and he is not picky. What next?

Editor’s Note: Story updated on Thursday 15 May 2025, after confirmation that Zwade Alleyne passed away.

• (Video by Uncle Keron Youth Empowerment Movement.)