10-y-o shot dead in home attack

“Mommy, mi feel like mi paralysed” were the last words 10-year-old Jezariah Tyrell spoke fluently before she lost consciousness, alerting her frantic mother to a single bullet wound although there was no sighting of blood.

The household was first awakened by shuffling sounds at about 2:30 a.m. on Thursday inside the 39 Wildman Street yard in downtown Kingston, where they were spending the night.

Dahlia Spence, Jezariah’s mother, said: “My boyfriend get up and say if we smell gas oil. Mi jump up and say, ‘Weh yuh say?’ and him say, ‘Come in like dem want bun down in here’.”

Spence told The Gleaner that the nightmare unfolded quickly.

“We just see fire and [hear] ‘Bam! Bam! Bam!’” she recalled, imitating the sound of gunfire.

“Mi baby deh pon di bed and mi grab her … . When mi a search her, it nah bleed,” Spence continued, adding that she later saw a bullet wound.

On the way to the nearby Kingston Public Hospital, Spence’s worst fears were realised when Jezariah died.

Spence said that the young child had been living between Fleet Street and Wildman Street for the past four years and is convinced the attackers did not care that a child was inside the home.

“Dem nuh business, all if dem know. Four years now she a sleep up deh, back and forth, so dem affi know,” she told The Gleaner through tears. “Dem come tek mi baby from mi just like dat.”

BRILLIANT MIND

Spence said Jezariah was a whiz when it came to technology, especially gadgets.

“Mi baby nice and intelligent. She knows nuff things, especially with computers. TV and phone are her calling. If me want know how fi fix, a she,” Spence said, adding that the 10-year-old was not fussy and they had plans to take her to a shoe store and an optician yesterday in preparation for a return to school on Monday.

The grieving mom reflected on this past Christmas Day, adding that they had a great deal of fun with lots to eat.

“The way the fun did sweet and we deh up deh late a eat. We never bathe or nothing. We just deh deh a eat around the table,” Spence recalled, adding that on Sunday, she took Jezariah, who had expressed a desire to become a nurse, to an amusement centre to enjoy some rides and games.

“Dem cut mi baby life short, just like that. Mi never know this did a go reach a my doorstep,” Spence yelled, steadily coming to terms with the fact that her journey raising her daughter without her father for the last seven years had came to a tragic end.

A neighbour, who credited Spence for her parenting skills, lamented the killing.

“A di future this dem a tek from society and this a go continue. Weh di MP (member of parliament), councillor, prime minister? Weh dem deh?” asked the neighbour.

A gang conflict between the Genacide and Darkcide factions has been blamed for the escalating murder figures in Kingston Central.

Two men – 40-year-old Alto Reid and 31-year-old Akeem Cunningham – were killed in the area on Wednesday.

Jezariah’s killing comes after those of T’Mora McCallum, six years old, who was killed on December 6, and a one-year-old girl, who was shot multiple times during a fatal shooting incident on December 27, as casualties of the war.

Children’s Advocate Dianne Gordon-Harris has condemned the murder, which is being investigated by senior detectives.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com