Police are still investigating but say yesterday’s murder-suicide in Lucky Strike is an open and shut case. The story is straightforward: in a jealous rage – 43 year old Terrence Herbert confronted 28 year old Jermaine Jones the man he alleged was sleeping with his girlfriend. He fatally shot Jermaine Jones and jumped on his bike and headed home to Rockstone Pond where he killed himself. But the story isn’t so simple for the small community on the Old Northern Highway. Villagers have to grieve and then heal. But that healing might be complicated by the fact that many knew about Terrence Herbert’s homicidal tendency but no one was able to do anything. Keith Swift tried to find out why.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Yesterday’s dramatic scene of Jermaine Jones’ body in the middle of the road in Lucky Strike with a bullet wound to the head – and Terrence Herbert in his back yard with a bullet wound to his neck shocked many but surprised few in Lucky Strike.
Winston Herbert, Terrence’s Father
“I was expecting this but didn’t know that it would come this time or this quick.”
And that is because Winston Herbert and just about everyone in Lucky Strike
knew his son Terrence Herbert was homicidal – a ticking time bomb.
Keith Swift,
Did you think your son would do this?
Dora Herbert, Terrence Mother
“Yes because he made that threat long time and it wasn’t the first time it happened. One time when it was ship day I had to call the police and they took him to Ladyville and he told looked what I put him in. I said I didn’t put him into anything because I had spoken to him long time and he still did the same thing. The police took the gun and he took the key, he got the key from the me, and he told me he would drive the vehicle right into the lamppost and kill himself.”
Winston Herbert,
“I have always been talking to Terrence. First of all Terrence was a stubborn minded man. He is gone now but before anytime he got himself into fuss with anybody the first thing he would like to say is I would kill you and we would talk to him and cool him down. But never the less it came to this man and woman problem and that is what caused this thing.”
Dora Herbert,
“It is something he had in his mind for a long time because of a girl.
I told him he is simple because he killed the boy and shot yourself and then where is the gial now.”
The one man who didn’t take him seriously was Jermaine Jones who had been repeatedly threatened and told his friend Allan Jones as much.
Allan Jones, Friend of Jermaine
“Every evening he came through he would mention to me that the man wants to kill him but I took it mek joke myself, I jinxed him as well and I guess he was taking it mek joke also until he met his death here today.”
Keith Swift,
So when you heard about the incident that Terrence did do it?
Allan Jones,
“Well I wasn’t surprised because I was one of the persons who Terrence had threatened before in the past. For me Terrence was a madman.”
A madman who was unstoppable yesterday – killing Jermaine Jones, riding home, and then killing himself - tearing apart two families, leaving his daughter without a father, and a village in stunned disbelief. All because everyone knew but no one thought to stop him.
Jermaine Jones lived in Lucky Strike and Terrence Herbert lived in Rockstone Pond and both were friends.
