Sophia sisters claim wrongful arrest in murder of 11-year-old boy
Two sisters from ‘C’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown have challenged police investigators on the arrest and charging of 27-year-old Shem King for the March 2021 murder of 11-year-old Anthony Cort.
King was arrested by the police last week and reportedly charged and remanded to prison on Tuesday for murder, six months after a 16-year-old male was charged for the same crime.
Cort was shot dead two houses from where he resided when two males, armed with handguns, invaded the property belonging to a 44-year-old businesswoman to carry out a robbery.
But the mother of King’s two children, Candacy Buelow and her sister, Faustina Barry, believe that police investigators have made a major mistake in charging him.
Buelow on Wednesday recounted the incident to the News Room; she said she was at home, two houses away from where the murder took place while King, a construction worker was at his worksite.
Buelow said she was the one who the boy’s mother ran to for help and she was also the person who went into the house and discovered him dead. She said up until the police showed up at her door last week, she has never heard of King’s involvement in the crime.
The sisters claim that initially, the police said they were arresting King for robbery but the following day it was made clear that it was in connection to the murder.
The arrest was made in the wee hours of the morning. The sisters said ranks without identification badges and without a search warrant walked into the house and took a sleeping King out of his bed.
“About 3 o clock they came, they came earlier in the night and circle the yard and said they looking for a tall strapping guy but me child father is a fine rasta person and he does work every day.
“When they come and knock, I open; they say they want search and I tell them they could search although they come without warrant… me boy wake up stupid when he hear the noise and the CID said ‘he, he we looking fuh. Arrest this man’,” Buelow recalled.
She said the detectives have no evidence to tie King to the crime and rejected claims that he was caught on camera and his name was given to the police by an informant.
Buelow said she spoke with both parents of the murdered child and they denied knowledge of the claims made by the police.
“He [King] is not a thief, he never go in no police story. Check all them station he never deh in no story with nothing. He does go to work and come home every day. This is the first time he get arrest,” she added.
Barry, on the other hand, said that while she respects and supports the police’s investigation, the information provided to them is false.
She said she was naked in her home when she heard banging on her bedroom door and moments later, she came face to face with a police rank in her house who said he was looking for drugs and ammunition but he later apologised.
“I was so scared. All I hear on my bedroom door was ‘bram bram bram bram bram’.
“They coulda deal with the matter differently, you understand me. God in heaven knows me brother-in-law wasn’t home that day. Me brother-in-law innocent. Duh bai was working. He don’t stay home,” a teary eye Barry related.
The police force has not released any information on the arrest and charging of King in relation to the murder. The 16-year-old who was charged is on remand at the Sophia Juvenile Holding Centre.
Cort was in the upper flat of the house located at ‘C’ Field Sophia when the masked men approached the shop owner and his mother in the bottom flat and held them at gunpoint.
The suspects then ordered the two women to the upper flat of the house when Cort exited a bedroom and was shot by one of the bandits to his upper shoulder.
He attended the St. Ambrose Primary School; his family said he had a bright future ahead of him and had plans of becoming a doctor.