Four men guilty of murder after boy fatally shot outside music studio

Tyler McDermott, 17, was killed in Tottenham, north London, last April 13.

Tyler McDermott was killed in April last year (Metropolitan Police/PA) (PA Archive)

Four men have been found guilty of murder after a 17-year-old boy was fatally shot in the head with a ball bearing and then stabbed with a machete as he lay defenceless on the ground outside a music studio.

Tyler McDermott was killed in Tottenham, north London, last April 13.

Tyrese Barnett, 20, Leo Reid, 20, Rhys Antwi, 20, and Kalam Bagge, 19, were convicted by a jury, after over 70 hours of deliberation, following an Old Bailey trial.

Barnett was further found guilty of attempted murder.

Alfred Coker, 21, and Damaris McBeth, 20, were charged with murder but acquitted by the jury on Wednesday.

Prosecutor John Price KC told the trial that “tension and hostility” had been brewing between two groups of young people who were all present in the music studio that morning in April.

Tyler and his friends were in one group while Barnett, Reid and the others were in the other, jurors were told.

The events were captured on CCTV footage, Mr Price said: “The man who shot Tyler McDermott in the head is Tyrese Barnett.

“The man who struck him to the lower body with the machete after he had fallen to the ground is Leo Reid.

“They showed they both intended and desired that Tyler McDermott should die.”

Mr Price said Reid had attacked the victim as he lay “stricken and defenceless on the ground”.

Despite the efforts of paramedics, Tyler died in hospital the following day.

The two attackers were identified by police and found two days later sitting together at Heathrow Airport with one-way tickets to Jamaica, the court heard.

The CCTV footage showed the gun was fired twice, with the second shot fired at Tyler’s friend, Kamali Lindo, the prosecutor said.

The prosecution did not allege Reid caused Tyler’s death with the machete, but it did help prove he shared guilt for the murder, the court heard.

Barnett, of no fixed address, Reid, of Tulse Hill, south-west London, Antwi, of Prentis Road, south-west London, and Bagge, of Nimrod Road, south-west London, will be sentenced on September 20.

Reid and Antwi pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon ahead of the trial.

Coker, of Bowen Drive, south-east London and McBeth, of The Glade, Croydon, have been cleared.