Marked for death
22-y-o killed in third gun attack
A MOTHER’S warning to her targeted 22-year-old son, who on two previous occasions was shot and injured by gunmen in their Delacree Lane community, came to pass after the third and fatal attack Monday night.
Novelette Forsythe and her family regularly told the first of five children, Romario Burrell, otherwise called ‘Bulby’, to be very careful.
He has been watching his back in their gritty community located in southern St Andrew.
The family said that Burrell’s was the third gun murder in their family since the start of the year.
His cousin was killed on January 1 and another relative on July 23.
The mothers of those deceased men were also by Forsythe’s side at the family home on Tuesday mourning Burrell’s death.
Forsythe told The Gleaner that her son did construction work after he was forced to abandon classes at the HEART Academy because of a gang war.
“Mi come outside right a mi lane and one of my cousin come say a Romario. Mi run go down the road. Mi see him pon di ground, nah talk or nothing,” she said.
Burrell was said to be kind, helpful, and a bit of a comedian.
Relatives said that he had been shot twice in 2021.
“Everybody warn him, but is not really a youth weh walk up and down. Him will go amongst his friends, and from his friends to his cousin, and to his yard,” Forsythe told The Gleaner.
Reports from the Hunts Bay police are that about 8:35 p.m. along Delacree Lane, a gunman on foot opened fire, hitting Burrell several times.
Residents summoned the police, who assisted the injured man to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Householders have also called for better lighting in the community, adding that criminals use the cover of darkness to commit violent crimes.
The St Andrew South Police Division has recorded a 16 per cent decline in murders year-on-year.
Up to September 17, the division recorded 104 homicides – 20 fewer than the 124 persons killed over the corresponding period in 2021.
All other major crimes in the division, except robberies and break-ins, have declined.
Meanwhile, murders nationally have increased year-on-year by eight per cent.
A total of 1,108 persons were killed up to September 17.