(Jamaica Gleaner) Tomorrow Tareek Gregory would have been celebrating his 12th birthday, looking ahead to doing his Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) examinations and fulfilling his dream of attending Manchester High.
However, his dream will not be realised, after his brutal slaying Monday evening at his home in Harmons, Manchester.
Tareek, affectionately called Reekie, was found by his mother Elodie Gregory in a back room at their home with his throat slashed and stab wounds to his body.
“He (Tareek) went to school on the day and stayed back for extra lessons and then went home,” said his 24-year-old brother Jermaine Gregory.
“My mother called me minutes after 6 p.m. and said she reached home and saw the front grille and the back door open and she is calling her baby (Tareek) and don’t hear him. I came by same time and after searching the house my mother found him in a pool of blood in the room that used to be my room.”
Tareek’s gruesome death has left the Harmons community in shock and disbelief. Workers from the Trevor Dunkley Company, where Elodie and Jermaine work, visited the home at which Tareek lived with his mother and father, Dennis Gregory, to show their sympathy.
“It was Sunday Reekie just took up his book and start to study. He told me that his aunt Sharon (Bailey) told him that if he passed for Manchester High or Bellefield, she is going to buy him a Timberland boots valued at $10,000. So he said he is going to study hard because he wanted to go to Manchester High,” Jermaine said.
“Reekie is a well-behaved little boy. He is never in any fight or anything. He is Mommy’s baby, him don’t go nowhere, more than stay in the yard and play. I can’t believe that my little brother gone.”
The school community of Harmons Primary was in grief.
“Tareek was a jovial student, well mannered. The football and cricket (teams), of which Tareek was a member, are greatly affected. So, too, the rest of his classmates in grade six,” principal of Harmons Primary, Georgia Waugh Richards, said.
Counselling begins
The Ministry of Education said it has sent out counsellors to help the children and the family, and assured that the process would continue as long as necessary.
“Reekie loved trucks and wanted me to teach him to drive. It is sad that I won’t be able to teach him now. Mommy little baby gone,” Jermaine lamented.
The Porus police, who are investigating the case, said no arrest had yet been made in relation to the murder.
A family member is being sought for questioning.