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Friday, July 18, 2025

24th police killing for 2014 sparks fiery protest, as Morvant residents call for quick justice

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20140606

Al­though rel­a­tives of Chaquille Mc Coy do not ex­pect to get jus­tice for his killing at the hands of po­lice, the an­gry rel­a­tives and vil­lagers still burned tyres and de­mand­ed some sort of re­lief yes­ter­day.The ac­tion came be­cause they said Mc Coy was in­no­cent and did not de­serve to die that way.The po­lice, how­ev­er, claim Mc­Coy was on his way to mur­der a woman and shot at them when they at­tempt­ed to in­ter­cept him.Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, around 10.45 am yes­ter­day of­fi­cers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force re­spond­ed to a re­port that three armed men were in a track off Mon Re­pos Road, Mor­vant, which leads to Petu­nia Av­enue.

The of­fi­cers said they re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that the men were mak­ing their way to the home of Michelle Hold­er whose sons – Jadel Hold­er, 9 and Ja­mal Braith­waite, 15 – were as­sas­si­nat­ed at their Petu­nia Av­enue, Co­conut Dri­ve, Mor­vant, home on Sun­day.The law­men said when they ap­proached the trio they were fired up­on and re­turned fire, killing Mc Coy. The oth­er two men es­caped.How­ev­er, res­i­dents said po­lice mur­dered Mc Coy while he was at work near a near­by par­lour, called the "Ban­go Snack­ette". At the time of his killing, Mc Coy was said to be cut­ting steel for the con­struc­tion of a box drain. The res­i­dents added the area which led to Petu­nia Av­enue was nowhere close to where the man was killed.Mc Coy's moth­er, Mar­sha Mc Coy, told the me­dia her son could have been a crim­i­nal be­cause of with whom he grew up but in­stead de­cid­ed to be­come a disc jock­ey.

She said the 21-year-old fa­ther of one, who went by the so­bri­quet "Spin Boi Paul", was al­so plan­ning a par­ty be­fore he was killed.She added: "He was a very nice boy, very straight-for­ward and loved mu­sic and foot­ball."Let me tell al­lyuh some­thing, from where them chil­dren come from, they could have been worse. If they want­ed to take the bad road they could have tak­en it. They had some stum­bles, yes, but they change their lives."And to hear that from that, he try­ing to keep out of trou­ble and they still come for him and this is how he died. That is hurt­ful. That is just hurt­ful." Mc Coy's old­er broth­er, 22-year-old Isa­iah Mc Coy, said yes­ter­day morn­ing his broth­er asked if he was go­ing to work and he said no. Mo­ments lat­er, the old­er Mc Coy was told po­lice had killed his broth­er.

A vis­i­bly up­set Isa­iah was seen pac­ing the road­way and say­ing he was the last one on the street. He said his old­er broth­er was mur­dered in 2008 and now his younger broth­er was killed by po­lice."I don't ex­pect any­thing to hap­pen but I want jus­tice. I don't want the po­lice to cov­er this up be­cause my moth­er know we work­ing. We try­ing to stay out of that life," he said.Mc Coy was al­most ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers af­ter he at­tempt­ed to pick up a spent shell from the scene of the shoot­ing. That, and the pres­ence of Crime Watch host Ian Al­leyne, af­ford­ed res­i­dents and op­por­tu­ni­ty to show their anger.

Three pro­test­ers ar­rest­ed

Res­i­dents were heard say­ing of­fi­cers could not ex­pect as­sis­tance from the pub­lic when they be­haved like that as they promised to re-ig­nite the burn­ing tyres that were doused by the Fire Ser­vices. The res­i­dents, af­ter end­ing the protest at Mon Re­pos, al­so blocked off the La­dy Young Road yes­ter­day evening, caus­ing a ma­jor traf­fic jam for those head­ing out of the city. Three peo­ple were ar­rest­ed dur­ing that protest.

Mc Coy's cousin, Nel­isha Mc­coy, said: "We don't ex­pect any jus­tice but we want it. The rea­son be­ing birds of a feath­er. You see North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force kill him and look around you it's the same Mor­vant and NEDTF men who out here now."So we ask­ing for help. We want jus­tice. My moth­er get kill just the oth­er day. She was stabbed and killed in town. So my fam­i­ly tree short­en­ing every year. And it's not to say that Chaquille is a bad boy or any­thing. He is a lit­tle child."Res­i­dents said Mc Coy was shot in the back."Is sev­en jeep pull up here to­day... They shoot at him while his back turn... The man was cut­ting steel and they come and shoot him, then come over him and shoot him in the head... If you see how he was curl(ed) up on the ground. Them po­lice too wicked," were some of the state­ments res­i­dents made as they called on the pow­ers that be to kick the of­fi­cer out of the ser­vice.

There have been 24 deaths in po­lice shoot­ings for the year. None of the probes in­to these killings have been com­plet­ed.

1. Janus Alphon­so, 28, on Jan­u­ary 10 at Ch­agua­nas.

2. Wal­cott Ali, 51, on Jan­u­ary 11 at Clarke Trace, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas.

3. Nicholas Sylvester, 19, on Jan­u­ary 20 at Eighth Street, Barataria.

4. Kevon Charles, 26, on Jan­u­ary 31 at Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas.

5. Akeem Price, 22, on Feb­ru­ary 4 at Ma­yaro.

6. An­tho­ny Hep­urn, 29, on Feb­ru­ary 11 at Mt Mo­ri­ah, To­ba­go.

7. Ju­nior Noel, 31, on Feb­ru­ary 14 at Sookoo Trace, Clax­ton Bay.

8. An­der­son Deo, 22, on Feb­ru­ary 14 at Ch­agua­nas.

9. Je­re­my In­nis, 19, on March 10 at Ch­agua­nas.

10. Adri­an Charles, 24, on March 18 at Gloster Lodge, Gon­za­les.

11. Satro­han Ramhanie, 22, on March 26 at Xavier Street, off the Ca­roni Sa­van­nah Road, Ch­agua­nas.

12. An­tho­ny Hospedales, 18, on March 26 at Mc­Don­ald Street Ex­ten­sion, Chi­napoo, Mor­vant.

13. Jerome Clu­nis, 23, at Mc­Don­ald Street Ex­ten­sion, Chi­napoo, Mor­vant.

14. Gilbert Browne, 25, on March 27 at Ch­agua­nas.

15. Naim Dean, 21, on April 11 at La Hor­quette Val­ley Road, Glen­coe.

16. Roy Thomas, 29, on May 1 at Union Vil­lage Clax­ton Bay.

17. Chan­drab­hose Sama­roo, 32, on May 5 at Fitz Trace, Charu­ma For­est, Biche.

18. An­tho­ny Amo­gan, 43, on May 9 at La Paille Vil­lage, Ca­roni.

19. An­to­nio Swan, 21, on May 13 at Con­cerned Cit­i­zens Street, Cal­i­for­nia.

20. Nigel Long, 35, on May 13 at Ma­hogany Trace, Bagatelle.

21. Dil­lon Ma­son, 20, on May 21 at Cara­pichaima.

22. Jerome Cross, 27, on May 22 at San Juan.

23. Joel Ap­pari­cio, 31, on May 22, at Re­al Street, San Juan.

24. Chaquille Mc Coy, 21, on June 5 at Mon Re­pos, Mor­vant.


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