TROY, Trelawny — Still mourning the murder of 10-year-old Shani “Kaidra” Coke on Tuesday residents of the usually quiet district took to the streets on Thursday after one of their own was reportedly arrested by the police in connection with the mob killing of the man believed to have attacked her.

According to residents the man was taken into custody by the police who are probing the death of Shani and the fatal attack on the suspected child killer Delroy Coke, and the brutal beating of his father.

The placard-bearing residents used debris to block the Troy main road — which links part of south Trelawny to northern Manchester — as they charged that the police had no reason to arrest the man, whose identity has not been released.

The residents also expressed their anger at the murder of Shani.

Already angry over killing of 10-y-o girl, residents of Troy, Trelawny take to the streets after police arrest a man in connection with fatal mob attack on her suspected killer.

“We want justice. Protect our children. Children are the future. Let us protect them. The justice system failed us. We want justice for the brutal murder of Shani,” some of the placards read, while other called for the freeing of the man they said had been taken into custody.

Some of the protesters also took to social media platform TikTok to express their frustration and disgust.

“We a protest, because the police lock up a man and we want him to be freed…. We want justice,” one of the protesting residents told the Jamaica Observer.

Shani partially nude body was found with her throat slashed in bushes on Tuesday. Police said following the discovery of the child’s body, there was a mob attack on the father and son in the community.

Residents told the Observer that the two men are Shani’s relatives. They accused the son of raping and killing the child. He was beaten, chopped and stoned to death, while his father was left with major wounds.

An undated picture of 10-year-old Shani Coke, affectionately called Kaidra, who was killed in Troy, south Trelawny on Tuesday.

When contacted head of the police Area One Assistant Commissioner Glenford Miller said the investigators are seeking those involved in the mob attack.

“I know we are investigating to know who were the persons involved in that mob killing. I cannot say at this time if we have made any arrests,” Miller said mid-morning on Thursday. Subsequent efforts to get a further update were unsuccessful up to press time.

A heavy pall of gloom and anger clouded over Troy on Thursday with one resident telling the
Observer that the community remains grief-stricken.

“The whole of Troy is in mourning. We can’t stop thinking about the little girl and how she died so awful,” said the resident who requested anonymity.

MILLER… I know we are investigating to know who were the persons involved in that mob killing .

According to a police report, as well as the account of residents, mid-afternoon Tuesday, Shani was walking home from a shop along a roadway near her home when she was abducted.

Later, a farmer, who had gone in search of his cow after hearing strange sounds from bushes, made the grisly discovery and raised an alarm.

On Wednesday relatives remembered the child for her brilliance and radiant smile.

“All last week she got her certificate to show her brilliance. When you look at her you see the next doctor, lawyer, and they just took her life, just cut her off. Right now we are devastated. Right now we don’t know our head from our feet. Last night [Tuesday] we nuh sleep. This is traumatising. Maybe Kaidra was going to come and take her mother out of poverty and they cut her life short and kill her,” her aunt Shawna Williams-Stevens said before breaking down in tears.