Grief overflows as 60-year-old woman shot dead
Published:Tuesday | March 29, 2022 | 12:10 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Kimberlee Palmer, 22, still recalls the final embrace of her mother Lorna Johnson on Glen Drive, northern St Andrew, hours before the 60-year-old bar operator took her last breath early Monday.
Palmer had just taken a break from studies to join her mom.
“The last conversation I had with her, I said, ‘Mommy, you know say mi idle out today. ... Mi haffi go bust an all-nighter again,” the daughter said in a Gleaner interview.
“Mi mother hold me by my arm and hug me up and say at least yuh brain calm now, you can go tackle it the right way. That a di last conversation I had with my mother before dem slay her.”
Grief and shock hovered over Glen Drive after the brutal slaying of Johnson, a businesswoman and community matriarch who was shot metres from her gate after the close of operations.
Reports are that shortly after 4 a.m., Johnson, who operates a bar, died on the spot after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds.
PLEA FOR JUSTICE
Palmer describes her mother as ambitious, loving, and generous and hopes her death will not become just another crime statistic.
“We’re grateful for the assistance of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and would like them to do everything in their possible power to bring justice so that the family can get an ounce of peace because this loss is inconsolable, insufferable. We can’t bear, even if someone goes down for it. We will never ever, ever cope,” Palmer told The Gleaner as cops looked on.
Johnson’s business place is more than 100m from her home.
Residents complained, however, that the area is not properly lit and the killer(s) found it convenient and seemingly waylaid Johnson as she closed shop.
“Lorna round robin jus’ done and she a go home. Up deh very dark and is like dem watch her and do weh dem a do. The woman is so good to everybody,” a resident, who requested anonymity because of security concerns, said.
Johnson resided in Cassava Piece, St Andrew, for more than five decades and operated her business for close to 18 years.
Palmer said her mother had no issues with anyone and would not have been concerned about walking alone in the community at that hour.
Residents used dirt to cover the bloodstained corner where she fell after being shot.
Palmer, who was home at the time of the incident, said she rushed to the scene and sat beside her mother’s body.
Describing the perpetrators as vicious scoundrels, Palmer expressed deep concern for the safety of her family .
“We feel as if right now our lives are only in God’s hands. Only He can see us through and we are begging for support from the JCF to let peace reign,” Palmer said.
Some residents described Johnson as the mother for Cassava Piece who believed in peace.
“The community can attest to her grace, her generosity. If mi mother cook, mi know say a one time fi the Sunday mi a go eat, and she a cook more than six pound of rice, ‘cause who nuh get food a who nuh want food,” Johnson’s daughter said.
Palmer said her mother, who financed two kids through school, did all she could to send her children to school and wanted nothing but the best for her neighbours.
The grieving daughter is pleading for stronger security presence – even a curfew – in Glen Drive and Cassava Piece, which have been plagued with gun violence for decades.
The St Andrew North Police Division, up to March 20, recorded one fewer murder year-on-year.
Statistics by the JCF show that 13 people have been murdered in 2022 compared to 14 in 2021.
Shootings have been on the rise, with three more than the 11 recorded in 2021 for the period under review.