Report is solely from the Miami Herald
DYING YOUNG
Boy, 16, charged in murder
One of the bicycle-riding bandits responsible for the
death of an 18-year-old was arrested on Friday, Miami police said.
BY DAVID OVALLE
The accused killer bawled at the police station.
His name is Tyree Patrick Walker and he rode a bicycle to escape the
crime scene. A Northwestern High sophomore, Walker is just 16.
'He said, `All I did was snatch the chain. All I did was snatch the
chain off her neck,' '' said his grandmother, Eartha Walker, 72, who spoke
with him before he was booked.
Walker left the Miami police station Friday for jail, charged in the
robbery of Jhonna Mercado and the killing of her boyfriend, 18-year-old
Garvin Webster.
He didn't only tell his grandmother. First, he confessed to detectives,
police said.
Though he did not pull the trigger, police say, Walker can still
legally be held responsible for Webster's death because he took part in
the robbery.
He is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of armed robbery.
''It's tragic that a 16-year-old is going to prison,'' said Miami
Detective Delrish Moss. ``What's even more tragic is that an 18-year-old
died for no reason.''
The identity of Walker's friend, whom police believe to be the shooter,
was not known Friday evening.
Police have described the suspect as a young teenager, a little taller
than Walker, with short dreadlocks. His grandmother believes he is a
fellow student.
Homicide detectives believe Walker and his friend held up Webster and
his girlfriend early Monday as they sat in her Lexus after a date.
They were parked outside his home on the 1900 block of Northwest 35th
Street. The bicycle-riding boys yanked them from the car, demanding money
and jewelry.
Walker took money from Mercado, 18. The other boy, armed with a gun,
took Webster's possessions -- but shot him once in the chest.
Bloodied and gasping, Webster staggered toward his front door, knocked
on the door and moments later died in his father's arms.
''We cooperated. It wasn't like we were fighting back,'' Mercado said
Friday. ``I can't even sleep. I keep replaying it over and over.''
Walker was arrested by Detective Leo Tapanes.
Police on Friday were mum on how they tracked down Walker, whose
grandmother admittedly knows little about her baby boy.
Eartha Walker raised him and his older brothers and sister because
their parents died when he was a baby.
She knows Walker was on probation for assault and battery; he
intervened in a fight for a friend, she said.
She knows he didn't own a bicycle.
But his brothers and sister owned four, which Friday rested against the
living room wall of their Liberty City home.
Webster died just after 1:30 a.m. Monday. Eartha Walker doesn't know
where her son was at that hour -- she was asleep in the back bedroom. Her
grandson was home the rest of the week and seemed normal, she said.
And she knows this: Miami homicide detectives knocked on their door
about 5 a.m. Friday.
More than three hours later, Walker was in the police station, where he
tearfully admitted to his grandmother his role in the robbery.
''I don't how in the world he got mixed up with that boy,'' Walker said
Friday night, talking about the alleged shooter. ``I'm heartbroken about
this.''
Two miles away in Allapattah, Webster's family was heartbroken, too.
They prepared for his Friday night wake. Chairs lined the lawn. Friends
milled about the lawn under a white tent. Family members combed their hair
and dashed in and out of the bathroom. Garvin Webster Sr., the boy's
father, was lagging to take a shower. He smiled a wide smile. The arrest
gave him comfort.
''I know God was watching out for us. Everything will be OK,'' his
father said.
Mercado emerged from a bedroom, dressed in black.
''No words can explain it. How could someone be so cold-blooded?'' she
said.
Webster, she said, will always have a place in her heart.
He was a Jackson Memorial graduate who hoped to become a mechanic. He
was also an aspiring rapper.
Sweet, caring, passive -- he didn't deserve to die, Mercado said.
''At least I know he is happy knowing they were caught,'' she said.
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Video | Arrest in death of teen who died in his father's arms