The par­ents of 16-year-old Jay­lon George, who is the first mi­nor de­tained un­der the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE), say he is in­no­cent of the al­le­ga­tions made against him by the po­lice.

Ac­cord­ing to the pre­ven­ta­tive de­ten­tion or­der (PDO) re­lat­ed to George, he was “cred­i­bly iden­ti­fied by con­fi­den­tial in­tel­li­gence as a mem­ber of the Ras­ta City/Sev­en Gang.” The or­der added that George is a “shoot­er for the gang” and has ac­cess to a cache of high-pow­ered firearms and am­mu­ni­tion in­tend­ed to be used to ex­pand the gang’s ter­ri­to­ry. It fur­ther claims that he and oth­ers plan to im­mi­nent­ly car­ry out re­tal­ia­to­ry shoot­ings against ri­val gangs in pub­lic spaces, mak­ing his de­ten­tion nec­es­sary to dis­rupt these plans.

George is cur­rent­ly be­ing de­tained at the Youth Train­ing and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (YTRC) in Arou­ca.