Life Sentences Issued for Murder of Teenager Shot and Stabbed

Four men have received life imprisonment sentences for the murder of a teenager who was shot in the head at point-blank range outside a party and then slashed with a machete. Tyler McDermott, 17, was attacked without warning in the early hours of 13 April last year in Tottenham, north London. An Old Bailey jury was shown CCTV footage depicting the moment he was shot and subsequently slashed as he lay defenceless on the ground. The four men were convicted in June following a three-month trial. They were given minimum prison terms ranging from 13 to 30 years. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Tyler’s mother Tamika Nembhard said her son’s life had been cut short in “a vicious and brutal and senseless murder”. Tyler’s sister Zion McDermott stated: “I will never understand why these boys did what they did; however hard I try, I cannot forgive them.” Tyrese Barnett, 20, of no fixed address, was sentenced by Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC to a minimum term of 30 years and received a 14-year concurrent sentence for the attempted murder of Kamali Lindo, who was fired at during the attack. Leo Reid, 21, from Tulse Hill, south-west London, who wielded the machete, was sentenced to at least 22 years in prison. Rhys Antwi, 20, from Streatham Hill, south-west London, must serve a minimum of 14 years, while Kalam Bagge, 19, from Tooting, south-west London, was given a minimum term of 13 years. The trial heard that there had been indications of “tension and hostility” developing between two groups of young people at the party, which was held in a music studio in Norman Road. One group, from north London, consisted of Tyler, Kamali and their friends, while the defendants were in a group who had travelled from south London and were armed with two bladed weapons and a gun. In mitigation for Barnett, Anne Whyte KC said that given his lack of previous convictions “everything suggests this was bizarrely out of character”. Acting for Reid, Liam Walker KC said the killing was a “grotesque” act, but his client suffered from anxiety and his behaviour had been “spontaneous“ and that of a “startled young man”.