One day after he was threatening to kill people at Piquette #2, off Old St Joseph Road, Laventille, Beetham resident Ja-Quan Henry was himself shot and killed yesterday morning.
Police said Henry was killed around 10 am. He was last seen walking with a man before gunshots were heard and his body found lying in some bushes. Police said that on Tuesday Henry was in the area threatening to kill people and it was ironic that they now had to investigate his murder.
Henry, the T&T Guardian was informed, had been warned by his mother, Tiffany, to steer clear of a life of crime after his brother was killed by police three years ago. Yesterday, the 20-year-old was shot near his girlfriend’s home.
Speaking with the media at the murder scene yesterday the mother of seven said her son was “a hardened boy” whom she had warned about the friends he kept and the choices he made. She added her son had two pending matters for robbery and after his brother Stephan was killed three years ago following a robbery, she did all she could to steer him in the right path.
Both brothers died at 20 as a result of gunshots. On September 11, Ja-Quan’s older brother, Stephan, was killed shortly after he existed a maxi which he and another man had just robbed. According to reports an undercover police officer killed Stephan after he pointed a gun at the officer just as the two bandits left the maxi at Cane Farm Junction around 9 am.
Henry said her son used to do odd jobs, like painting and construction, off and on and although he was “hard-headed”, he was not involved in any gang activity. “I not going to shy away from saying that he had problems with the law. “He just was in a lot of situations with the law. I wouldn’t say gang.
“It had bad boys he would be on the block with but not a gang,” Henry said, adding that as a son he was good to her, not rude or disrespectful, just stubborn. Henry’s killing has pushed the murder toll to 401 for the year, ten more than the corresponding period last year.