Out of the 507 reported murders for 2009, the killing of a ten-year-old Laventille girl, has been described a the most "heart-rending" homicide for the year. The incident was also condemned by Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Many would recall the morning of June 17, when the bloated body of Tecia Henry was found stuffed in a hole, under a house, a stone's throw away from her Essex Street, John John, home. Henry had gone missing three days earlier, after her mother, Dianne, sent her to make a purchase at a nearby shop.
For days, villagers searched the area for the child, but to no avail.
Incensed over the ghastly murder, hundreds of John John residents crossed "enemy territory" and surrounded several apartments at Block Eight, demanding that her alleged killer, Ricardo "Docs" McCarthy, come outside and face the angry mob. Within minutes, McCarthy ended up in the hands of residents, who broke down the door to his apartment. He was badly beaten and had to be rescued by police. Tecia's killing was the only homicide scene which attracted more than 200 law enforcement officers.
As McCarthy was led away in handcuffs, he shouted: "Is not me; is not me." After he was released from police custody, McCarthy never returned to John John. Instead, he decided to hide out at a house on Belle Vue Road, Long Circular, St James. On July 5, McCarthy was found shot to death in a track leading towards his house of refuge. He was never charged with Tecia's killing, because of a lack of evidence, and his killing remains unsolved, so far.
Officers examine the crime scene outside La Cabana Club in Curepe after the September 13, shooting that left five dead.
Five one time
On the morning of September 13, five men attending a birthnight party at La Cabana Club in Eccles Trace, Knowles Street, Curepe, were shot dead by two gunmen. Their killing was the biggest total in a single shooting incident for 2009. The victims were Ray James, 23, of Jackson Street in Curepe and Poinsettia Road, Macoya; Damien Punnette, 24, of Knowles Street in Curepe; Hakeem Vickles, 17, of Bell-Smythe Street, also in Curepe; Keron Charles, 24, of Arnos Vale Road in Moriah, Tobago, and Glen Morris, 26, of Bertie Road in Five Rivers, Arouca.
In that incident, close to 60 other persons at the party had to scamper for safety, as gunshots rang out. Kerwin Parris, 21, and Grima Selassie, 16, both of Arouca, were also wounded in the incident. Police mounted a nationwide hunt for two suspects, Tyron Randy Brown, aka "T" and "Spoon," and Hamza Lovell Friday, members of a gang known as "The Paparazzi". Both men were shot dead during an alleged exchange of gunfire with police of the North-Eastern Division Task Force at a house on Sawmill Avenue, Barataria, four days later.
Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said Brown was wanted in connection with close to 20 homicides along the East-West Corridor.
Police quickly solved the Curepe killings after the suspects were positively identified by witnesses, at the Forensic Sciences Centre, as the men who shot and killed the victims. The La Cabana killings, police said, appeared to be a reprisal for an attack on a 21-year-old man, who was severely chopped while liming at a bar on Watts Street in Curepe. James, officers said, was the gunmen's target after he was identified as one of the suspects involved in the chopping.
