In the spring of 2007, the life of 22-year-old Terry 'Tuna' Brock was cut short by gunfire in New Orleans. On the evening of April 2nd, Brock was in the 7th Ward, standing outside the Duck Off Bar on A.P. Tureaud Avenue, when the fatal shots were fired. The male victim's death was another addition to the city's grim statistics of violence, but the story of the pursuit of justice for him would become entangled with one of New Orleans' most notorious alleged gunmen.
Authorities and street
sources alike would point the finger at Garelle 'Jigga' Smith, a man who had cultivated a fearsome reputation in the city. Police alleged that Smith was the one who pulled the trigger, ending Terry Brock's life that day. This accusation, however, would prove difficult to make stick in a court of law. In a recurring theme that frustrated law enforcement, witnesses were unwilling to come forward and testify against Smith. The fear he instilled in the community effectively shielded him from prosecution in this case, as it had in several other murder allegations leveled against him.
Garelle Smith was never convicted for the murder of Terry Brock. The case, like others linked to him, remained officially unresolved in terms of a legal judgment. The cycle of violence that Terry Brock fell victim to eventually came for his alleged killer as well. In August 2011, Garelle Smith was found shot to death in the Gentilly neighborhood, his own murder closing a chapter on a man police believed was responsible for numerous killings, including that of Terry Tuna Brock. For Brock, legal justice in the form of a conviction was never realized.
