A five-year-old boy was stabbed to death at his home on Strachan Alley, off Kemp Road, around 6 p.m. yesterday, police said. Police confirmed that they took one of the boy's relatives in for questioning after the crime, which shocked relatives of the area. Though police could not say what led to the brutal killing, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson said the boy was stabbed to the chest and neck. Another relative arrived at the house and discovered the boy, Ferguson said. He said police arrested the relative after finding him in another room of the house. Ferguson said the relative was cooperative. "I think at this stage it is really too early to determine what is going through his head," said Ferguson, just a few feet from the house. "What could a five-year-old have done to deserve such an untimely death?" Ferguson called the killing a "tragic incident".
As The Nassau Guardian arrived at the entrance of Strachan Alley, scores of residents and other onlookers crowded the street. Many hugged one another and cried. Two women believed to be the boy's mother and sister burst into tears and screamed as they got closer to the house. Police quickly escorted them to a police bus before driving them away from the scene. Several residents of the area and administrators of Uriah McPhee Primary, the school the boy attended, identified him as Raquan Clarke, a grade one student. A neighbor, who claimed to have seen the boy and his relative playing outside the house less than an hour before the incident, said he heard the piercing scream of a woman coming from the house.
He said he ran inside the neighboring house from his home. He said was traumatized by the bloody scene and just could not process what he saw as he stepped closer to the bedroom. "I just passed them...and they were playing," said Shaw Knowles. "They were right there. I just don't know. If you knew him he has so many [Christmas] gifts from around here. He just joked with me the day before yesterday. "I got him a shirt and he said 'Shaw I don't want anymore shirts. I want a cologne'. The cologne is right there." Knowles never got the chance to give Raquan his Christmas gift.
Minister Laura Taylor, vice-president of the Kemp Road Community Development Association and chaplin of the school the boy attended, said she was called about an incident on Strachan Alley and began making calls to everyone she knew in the area. She said when members of the association contacted the boy's mother, the mother and the association members were unaware that it was her son who was killed. Taylor said that moments later she learnt that Raquan had been killed, but she said she could not break the news to his mother who was at work.
"The only thing that is going through my mind is how is his family going to cope and we just intend to be right there for them, the mother especially," she said. Taylor said she knew Raquan well and described him as a friendly boy, who loved people and was very energetic. She explained that many people will remember Raquan's excitement as he 'rushed' for his school at Junior Junkanoo last week while beating a drum. She said she was less familiar with the boy's relative who was taken into police custody.
Rita Thompson, president of the association and chairperson of the school's board, told The Nassau Guardian the incident has sent shockwaves throughout the community. "I knew him before he was even born," Thompson said. "I know the mother and I watched him grow into a very humble, energetic little boy and he was so sociable and always well groomed." Several other residents also said Raquan was well known and loved by many in the community. "The neighborhood is saddened," said an eastern New Providence resident who said she came to the house to support the boy's family. "His mum is my good friend," she said. "My niece called me and I came straight away." Raquan was the 107th murder victim for the year.
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