Email

Print

Courtney Menzies attempted to find the answers to these questions. Here's her story.

It was around 5:30 yesterday evening that dozens of residents near Supal Street were searching frantically for a missing 6-year-old. King Shakel Wade had been in the backyard of his babysitter's house when he fell into the canal.

As night set in, the already near-black water became darker and while some members of the community had dived in, others were using long poles to feel around for the child.

About twenty minutes past 6, Wade's little body was pulled up from under the water. But he'd been lying at the bottom of the canal for about 3 hours, and CPR efforts were futile.

For the past twenty four hours, Wade's family has been trying to piece together how it happened. His aunt told us she was at work when she heard a child fell into a canal, not knowing it was her own nephew.

Courtney Menzies:
"What was running through your head when you found out it was King?"

Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased
"What happened? I still have more questions than answers. What happened? Who was there? How was that possible?"

"From what I know, my nephew, who is a 5 year old, he went inside and he alerted an adult and told that adult that King Shakel fell in the canal, I guess because they're children, they probably didn't believe, they thought that they were playing, so it wasn't something that they took as an alert, jump and say, oh let me go see what happened, no."

It wasn't until Wade's 12 year old sister arrived at the babysitter's house around 3:30, inquiring about her brother, that 56 year old Jennifer Fitzgibbon realized something was wrong. But she says they began searching the neighborhood instead of the canal.

Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter
"When she came back here, and my grandson told her King is in the canal. So she laughed and I told her don't laugh because that could be serious. So we went looking around, we went all around to where we think he could've been, and we came back. And when we came back I told her, go check in that canal one more time to see if you see his slippers. And that's when I heard her bawl out. When I came, I saw the two slippers in the canal and from then they started to search."

At that time, Wade had been under for at least an hour. It wasn't until after 5, though, that police and coast guard were called onto the scene. Their presence alerted the rest of the neighborhood, who ran out to help. By the time Wade had been found, four men had braved the canal's.murky shoals to search for him with the entire neighborhood pressing unto the edge of the canal.

Arenel Smith, Rescuer
"I don't really know what happened but that just hurt me when I heard King was in the water. First thing that came to my head was to go home, take off the clothes you have on, no hesitation, and jump in the water. Don't worry about what's down there or what's in there, just jump in the water and try to save the little boy. First time I was circling and circling, I'm not finding anything but I still didn't give up hope to say come out and roll out. I stayed right there and we searched and searched. Coast Guard and so came. They were supposed to be in the water, but we're from around here. I don't know if they're afraid because they heard about crocodiles and those things, we don't worry about those things."

Egbert Myers, Rescuer
"When we went there, we met police over there looking for the baby but they couldn't find him, until the night when I saw everybody starting to jump in the water then I said just let me go. As I jumped in the water, when I went to the bottom, I felt his foot."

"It was rough. I didn't even want to go pick him up but I had to because he was my little cousin."

Steve White, Rescuer
"I knew that he already drowned, we couldn't save him, but we wanted to find his body before the next day, we didn't want to have to go back and look for him the next day but down there is very dangerous, very deep, a lot of zinc, all kinds of things can cut you down there."

"When they were handing the little boy up, nobody wanted to receive him so I just ran across the canal and grabbed the little boy and put him in my arms and run with him and my tears just started to come."

It was a tragedy that befell the entire community. And like the family, they have also been questioning the events leading up to it.

Fitzgibbon explained that Wade enjoyed running across the canal when horses are passing, led by their owners to go and feed. But how did no one notice that Wade was missing before his sister came home?

The babysitter claims she was at home taking care of the other children at the time it happened, and that she instructed Wade to sit in the front of the yard. But Wade's family says that they have heard rumors to suggest otherwise.

Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased
"There's a lot that is going around. People are saying that she was not there at the time. I don't know, I wasn't there. I know her as a person that, yes, she looks after my nieces and nephews, that's what I know her for. She's not the only adult in the yard so even if she went out, I'm not sure if she alerted another adult of told them that, okay I'm going to do something, just keep an eye on the kids. We don't know but it's something that us the family are leaving in the hands of the police."

And in the meantime, this tragedy has broken the hearts of everyone who played a part in Wade's short life.

Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter
"I can't even explain it. I'm telling you. It hurts. I don't want to watch anymore kids."

Reporter:
"So now that you're going though this, you feel like you're not going to be babysitting anymore?"

Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter
"No."

Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased
"We have to be strong for my nephew who saw what happened, he has a very strong relationship with King. He is five, King is six, so they grew up together and we just have to talk to him because he saw, he told them what happened but nobody was listening."

"I have two daughters, a 10 and a 7 year old, I can't even imagine the pain that my sister is going through right now, I can't tell you how she feels, I can't find the words to comfort her, I just have to be the strong one and remain by her side."

And his aunt told us that Wade was treated like a King in the Plues Street area where he lived - known and loved by everyone he met.

Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased
"In the family, he is known as the sweet and sour child. The name is explanatory for itself because King would be doing something out of the way and his mom will beat him and right after that, King will go do something to sweet up his mom so everybody in the family call him sweet and sour. At the school, the kids they love him, the principal, she always says that she loves King's honesty because if King is to be in the office, he would hurry say what he had done just so he could get out of the way. He was a playful child, he loves to play, he would be on the street, this entire neighborhood knows King because King hails everybody, everybody loves King, he's very lovable."

"We as the family are very grateful for them, the men that jumped in and found him, we're grateful that we managed to get his body out of that canal before the night was out."

Wade leaves behind his three siblings.

Their father, Shakeem Humes, was murdered back in August 2020. Yesterday would have been his birthday.

Humes' brother, and Wade's uncle, was also killed in August 2018.