ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD Ezekiel Paria loved reading and had big dreams of becoming a pilot when he grew up.

But he was robbed of this opportunity on Thursday when he was killed by a stray bullet.

The child was standing on Mapp Trace, Laventille Road, East Dry River on, Thursday afternoon around 4.50pm when gunmen ambushed a passing vehicle.

It is believed the intended target was 39-year-old contractor Ahkel Fairbairn who was in the car with his 15-year-old daughter.

Fairbairn's daughter got out and ran away. She was not injured.

Her father was shot multiple times, and Paria was shot in the head.

Paria was pronounced dead at hospital and Fairbairn remains warded in stable condition.

Paria's mother, Melissa Huggins, told Newsday her son – a standard five Eastern Boys' Government Primary School student – rode his bicycle to a neighbourhood shop, as he usually would, and was returning home.

Speaking while in tears at the Forensic Science Centre, Port of Spain, on Friday morning, she said she got the news via a phonecall while she was at work.

"Imagine getting a call on work that your child dead...

"His brothers and sisters taking it really hard. Nobody was expecting that."

Paria leaves behind two sisters and three brothers.

"I'm just trying to hold up," Huggins said.

[caption id="attachment_1065753" align="alignnone" width="999"] Melissa Huggins, mother of Ezekiel Paria, 11, who was murdered during a drive-by shooting in East Port of Spain on February 22, stands in grief outside outside the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on February 23. - Photo by Roger Jacob[/caption]

Recalling the phone call she got from her daughter breaking the news, she said, "She had to repeat herself.

"After the first and second time, I was (still) like 'What?'

"She say, 'Ma, Ezekiel gone. They kill Ezekiel.'"

Other family members were there consoling her and each other.

She said Paria was preparing to sit the SEA exam on March 21.

Asked what his favourite subjects were, she said he loved maths and reading. His first choice was Fatima College and his second, St Anthony's College.

"He always said he wanted to be a pilot – from small, growing up. That's what he always wanted to be.

"I told him to go to school, learn your work, get an education and you can be anything you want to be."

She said the staff at his school have been extremely supportive, but they too are struggling to come to terms with his death.

"Since yesterday when they (heard he was shot), they called me while I was in the hospital. I said, 'Miss, Ezekiel dead, inno.'

"Miss break down one time on the phone."

Huggins said Paria loved football and riding his bike and that she "could not even explain" the impact he had on her life.

More than a dozen spent shells were found at the crime scene, including several high-powered rifle-bullet casings.

On Thursday, councillor for St Ann's River North Alicia Gift told Newsday it was "an unfortunate situation – not just in my community but in all the communities that have been affected and cont