Family members shared fond memories of two teenagers who were fatally shot when trees were presented in their memory yesterday.

Oscar Riley said that he will never forget the impact his 18-year-old son, Razi Garland — who was killed near Fort Scaur on July 10 — had on others.

He said: “It was not until he had passed that I got to understand that he was traversing the island, meeting people and making an impact.

“That’s one of the things that sticks out to me about Razi.”

Mr Riley said positive activities have helped him to cope with his son’s death.

He explained: “I try to be around people who I know will drive positivity and not negativity. We need positive support to get us out of what we find ourselves in; I think that smooths the transition.”

Renée Riley, Mr Garland’s mother, said that the Berkeley Institute graduate always prioritised school and other tasks over leisure time.

She said: “We always had a saying, ‘Do what you have to before doing what you want to’, and he always epitomised that.”

Mr Garland was accepted to the Bermuda College and St John’s University after graduating from high school in 2023.

Sidukhani Robinson, whose 19-year-old nephew, Amon Robinson, was also killed on July 10, remembers when they went to Atlanta, Georgia, together after he graduated from The Berkeley Institute.

Ms Robinson, a corporal in the Royal Bermuda Regiment, interviewed Mr Robinson and Mr Garland on the Black Excellence Club podcast in 2023.

The family members spoke after activist Glenn Fubler presented two trees that symbolised peace at Fort Scaur yesterday.

Activists said last year that a cedar tree would be planted at the fort to recognise the teenagers, as well as the negotiations that eventually ended violence in apartheid South Africa, which took place in 1990 at the Lantana Guest Cottages near by.

It was later decided that an olivewood tree would also be planted.

Mr Fubler, of Imagine Bermuda, said the fort represented “both the light and the dark that is part of the human journey, the journey of eight billion of us on the planet”.

He highlighted that yesterday marked 35 years since South African activist and politician Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, as well as 190 years since the ship Enterprise entered Bermuda’s waters carrying 78 enslaved people, who were granted emancipation on the island — all but six accepted their freedom.

Mr Fubler added: “Notwithstanding the challenges, we are encouraging each other as a community to move forward, heal to those extents that we can and move forward for future generations.”

Teachers and students from Somerset Primary and The Berkeley Institute, where Ms Riley works, politicians, and Progressive Group member Izola Harvey attended yesterday’s presentation.

Scott Simmons, who was the Progressive Labour Party MP for Southampton West before the dissolution of the legislature last month, said: “We can’t let the things that are working to destroy our communities destroy them, so we must continue to work and come together to prevent tragedies from happening.”

Pencils were handed out at the presentation to symbolise that everyone plays a role in writing history.

Two men were arrested last July in connection with inquiries into the fatal shootings of Mr Garland and Mr Robinson. A spokesman for the Bermuda Police Service confirmed yesterday that they remained on police bail.

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