Strains of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” blared from large speaker boxes placed at almost every corner of John John and Beverly Hills in Laventille yesterday. The scene on St Paul Street in Port-of-Spain was no different. Residents—with beer bottles and plastic cups of rum and Coca-Cola in hand—danced. They were “celebrating” the murder of Ricardo “Docs” McCarthy, 49, who was shot dead on Sunday night. McCarthy, who police claimed controlled the Block Eight Gang in Laventille, was the prime suspect in the killing of ten-year-old Tecia Henry.
A few hours after Tecia’s bloated body was found stuffed in a hole under a house at Plaisance Terrace in Laventille, McCarthy and five other men of Block Eight were detained by police. Police believe McCarthy “was put in place” to be killed. His body was found in a track off Belle Vue Road in Long Circular, St James. Police said they were told by residents that several loud explosions were heard around 10.30 pm on Sunday.
But it was only around 6.30 am yesterday that McCarthy’s body was found in a bushy track leading to Dundonald Hill. Investigators said he was shot several times at close range to the head. McCarthy, who was released recently from police custody, may have been hiding out in the Belle Vue area, investigators believe.
Justice served
Sitting on red concrete steps at her home on Essex Street in Laventille, Tecia’s mother, Diane, propped her chin with her hands.
She, too, rejoiced that McCarthy was dead. “I must feel happy about that. I get justice from the people, because they working,” Diane said. But her joy was evidently shadowed by sadness. Tears flowed from her pale, sunken eyes as she cried out for her murdered child. “I still have all Tecia things...her clothes, her books, everything. I not throwing nothing away. “Nothing could bring back my child. Is every day I suffering. I wish I could get she back.”
Scoffing at claims that Tecia’s death was linked to a drug deal gone sour, Diane lashed out against her detractors, insisting: “They know nothing. Them people don’t know what they saying. They talking all kind of wrong thing about me.” Spending her days locked away in her burglar-proofed home, except for the company of her 12-year-old twin daughters, Tia and Tamara, and a few close relatives, Diane said she wanted to be left alone. “I just want some peace. I keeping by myself,” she said softly.
At his apartment on St Paul Street, Tecia’s father, Lynton James, with a beer bottle in hand, embraced friends. “Is a relief, because any parent would want to get that man off the face of the earth. “Docs was a real threat. Them fellas do thing to hurt plenty other people and they accustom doing these things,” James said.
Touched the wrong child
James’ mother and Tecia’s paternal grandmother, Patricia, said the perpetrator who lured Tecia to her death touched the wrong child.
“It was really an injustice to this little child, but God don’t sleep. “When they take Tecia they touch the wrong child, and is obvious they have to pay,” Patricia said. Echoing her sentiments was Tecia’s aunt, Marlene Grant, who declared yesterday as “the happiest” day in her life. “I, for one, damn happy. Is not Docs alone, but all of them have to go,” Grant said.
Referring to statements made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that Tecia’s killing must not be taken “at face value,” Grant said Manning was “wrong.” Manning made the statements during his party’s special convention recently at Chaguaramas Convention Centre. “I know Manning wrong when he say that. But I know he would apologise someday,” Grant said. Asked what was her reaction on hearing of McCarthy’s killing, Grant replied: “I take a big drink and then I wine like a windmill.”
“Satan” dead
At Plaisance Terrace, 58-year-old Reynold Johnson shouted: “Retribution come.” According to Johnson, his 27-year-old son, Darren Pompey, was killed four years ago by McCarthy. “I celebrating; I feel good, because this man was a pest in my life,” Johnson said. At John John, shopkeeper Carlton “Big Shines” Gibbons described McCarthy as “Satan himself.” Gibbons said he, too, was subjected to McCarthy’s terror when, a few years ago, he was held-up at gunpoint.
Good out of evil
Tecia was killed five days before her 11th birthday. Her tragic death, which touched the lives of many, has reunited warring factions, bringing a sense of peace in the crime-infested community. “Out of every evil come a good. People from John John, Beverly Hills and St Paul Street used to be fighting. “But now people could walk the road again,” Gibbons said. Other weeping residents said Tecia was the “sacrificial lamb,” who restored the “good old” days in Laventille.
Tecia went missing after leaving her mother’s home on Essex Street, John John, around 7.30 am on June 14. The child, a former pupil of St Rose’s Girls’ Primary School in Port-of-Spain, was reportedly sent to K and G Mini-mart, at the lower end of John John, to purchase a phone card and other items. She never made it to the shop. An autopsy revealed she was strangled the day she went missing.
