Fleeing from the police with three other men, Tyrique Tyreese Herbert ran into a house on Chapman Lane, St Michael and tried to hide the illegal firearm he was carrying inside a toilet bowl.
That was disclosed when Principal State Counsel Joyann Catwell read the facts of the case against the Kensington Lodge, Passage Road, St Michael resident after he pleaded guilty in the No. 4A Supreme Court to having a Glock 27 .40 S&W pistol without a valid licence and 22 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit on July 6, 2022.
In his interview with officers, Herbert, who was 19 years old at the time of the offence, said he ran into the house because “police was coming and I had a firearm on me”.
He then ran into the bathroom and put the firearm in the toilet bowl because the police were in the house.
Asked where he got the firearm from, Herbert replied that he had found it on the pasture in his neighbourhood and that it had the bullets and magazine.
He also stated that he had intended to turn in the weapon but “I tell myself I gine get lock up for it.”
In her statement, the owner of the house said she had been at home with her six-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter around 9:21 p.m. when she heard the door open and close twice. When she went to check, she found four men inside her living room – two close to the door, one lying on the floor and one sitting on her glass coffee table. She asked why they were in there and one replied, “Police out dey” and signalled for her to hush. She then heard footsteps outside the house, and police identified themselves and entered the house.
The officers asked her if she knew the men in her house and she replied that she did not, and permitted them to search the house. A female police officer escorted her to the bathroom and showed her the firearm in the toilet. The homeowner told the officers she had no knowledge of the gun.
Apologising for his “mistake”, Herbert said, “I ask the court to show me some mercy.”
The convicted man was represented by attorney-at-law Shadia Simpson who requested a pre-sentence report.
Madam Justice Wanda Blair ordered the report and adjourned the matter until September 24.
