The Tribune

YESTERDAY was Father’s Day, and across the country, the men who have played a part in raising children were celebrated.

It is a day to honour those who have tried their hardest to do their best for their families.

That can sometimes be in challenging circumstances – and it is an apt reminder for those men to redouble their efforts for those in need.

There is a tragic story in today’s Tribune that tells the story of some of those challenging circumstances.

Elron Johnson was shot and killed on Thursday night as he took part in an attempted robbery on a restaurant. He was 17.

We say tragic because it is all such a waste – but Elron chose to be in that position. He was one of two people who entered the establishment armed with a firearm and demanded cash.

Every customer who was present, every staff member who was working, was put in fear for their lives by the choices of those two, one of which was Elron.

An off-duty police officer intervened, there was an exchange of gunfire, and Elron is dead.

Listening to his father in today’s Tribune, he tried to steer his son away from such a situation.

He said the night before Elron was killed, he pleaded with him to turn his life around.

He said Elron said “he understands why he saying that” but the message did not stop Elron from taking part in an attempted robbery the next night.

Elron, a 17-year-old, was also himself a father. He leaves behind a child and a pregnant girlfriend.

Too young a parent, too young to die.

The choices Elron made led him on the path to that robbery. Those choices led him to the short life he lived. His father tried to show him another way – as fathers should.

Elron is not the only one out there in such a situation. We know there are too many robberies. We see young men appearing before the courts all the time. We see too many of them in body bags at murder scenes on the streets.

How can we reach the other Elrons? How can we, like Elron’s father, try to steer others away from a path of crime, a path of violence? How can we make them see that it is wrong to subject people to the terror of someone walking into a business and waving a gun? For those young men who are parents already themselves, how can we make them realise they will never see their children grow up if they take this path?

Elron’s mother said her child is dead “because of the friends he keeps”. How do we make a generation choose not to be with those friends?

The simple truth is that for many this is a fight that is failing. Gangs provide something in these young men’s lives they cannot find elsewhere. A sense of belonging. A sense of, perhaps, achievement in the respect from other gang members. It is a castle built on sand, ready to crumble in the face of violence, the courts, trouble with police and a thousand other troubles being part of what a gang brings.

But perhaps there is a layer of support we are not offering – and that is for the fathers, and the mothers too. As we try to reach out to these young men to steer them onto a different path, we should also reach out to their families.

Sometimes, they will not know what to say, how to say it or where to turn for help in giving their children the chance of redemption. And perhaps they need that lifeline.

Make no mistake – these young criminals are wrong. They have no right to inflict suffering on others as they so often do. There can be another way. But they have to choose it – or they may just pay the price.