Teenage killer pleads guilty to seven-count charge
Published:Tuesday | March 1, 2022 | 12:08 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
A teenage killer has described for police investigators how he fired a bullet into the body of a former associate in a brazen daylight double-murder, then blamed his action on pressure from other members of their gang.
Eighteen-year-old Michael Black also detailed how he was enlisted by the same members of the Bloods gang, based in Clarendon, to carry out a $1.7-million robbery at the Lasco MoneyGram outlet in the town of Chapelton.
He is believed to be a member of the gang.
Black pleaded guilty in the Home Circuit Court last Thursday to a seven-count indictment that includes two counts of murder, two counts of illegal possession of firearm, and three counts of robbery with aggravation.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4.
Akeem Murray, also called ‘Kemo’, and Kamar Ramatar, also called ‘Kaftan’, were travelling on a motorcycle when they were shot repeatedly about 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of Race Course and Hayes Field roads in Clarendon on November 18, 2020.
“Bare headshot,” one eyewitness told investigators, describing the men’s injuries.
Murray and Ramatar were also members of the Bloods gang.
Following his arrest, Black told investigators he was at home on the day of the double-murder when a man he identified as ‘Killa’ came to see him, according to a caution statement he dictated to detectives.
He said Killa told him they were “going on the road” and he followed him to a white Toyota Axio motor car.
Two other men, identified as ‘Zaggy’ and ‘Tassian’, were already in the car before they picked up a fourth man, identified as ‘Jay’, in the community of Race Course, the teen disclosed.
Shortly after, he said Jay said, “See dem there.”
“Killa jumped out the car and shoot dem off the bike,” Black said, referring to the double killing.
The 18-year-old said after Killa returned to the vehicle, he took a Smith & Wesson pistol from the drawstring bag he was carrying and went to the spot where Murray and Ramatar lay wounded.
He said he fired two shot, “but none never ketch dem”.
“And den me shoot the left one in him shoulder, and di two a dem did already dead,” he said during an interview with detectives.
One of the detectives asked why he shot the men.
“Fada, mi don’t even really understand how to explain it to you, but as I can say, it’s force,” he responded, according to the statement.
“Killa come to the yard and seh come mek we go on the road, and when me go on the road, a suh mi get the gun in my hands.”
Black disclosed that on the day of the robbery he, Killa and a man identified as ‘Suffera’ were travelling to Chapelton when they told him what was about to happen.
He said Killa and Suffera announced the robbery, but acknowledged that he searched three persons inside the remittance outlet and took away their phones.
The teen admitted, too, that he went over the counter and saw “a lot of cash, more than $200,000”.
The robbers made off with $1.7 million in cash, employees told the investigators.