If only grandma were there

Had Clarrisa Palmer been home, she might have played her routine role of referee in a long-running, bad-tempered dispute between two brothers that turned deadly on Saturday.

In her absence, a teen, who on Saturday reportedly carried through on years of threats to kill his older sibling, left the community of Tawes Meadows in Spanish Town stunned and relatives grappling with double grief.

Dead is Alex Brissett, 21, while his brother, a 17-year-old minor, is on the run following the fatal stabbing at their home.

Although Palmer had previously witnessed discord between the siblings, she had never thought a dispute would escalate with deadly consequences.

“Dem always a argue, cuss-cuss every minute. Mi grow dem, but it never reach this far. Mi always a say, ‘Unnu have one mother. Mi always part dem,” Palmer said in a Gleaner interview on Sunday.

Alex’s father, Omar Brissett, told The Gleaner that the murder threats were a constant refrain between the feuding brothers.

He said he showed equal love for Brissett, his biological son, and his stepson.

“Me stand for every responsibility for even (name redacted). A me mind the whole of them,” the dad said.

The elder Brissett said he was unaware of the cause of the deadly dispute but confirmed that the two have had several confrontations.

He is urging his 17-year-old stepson to turn himself in.

Brissett, the father said, was like a trusted partner.

“He was my right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot. When I’m not there, he is the one that deal with my business. Alex is my everything. The whole of dem a my everything,” he said, clutching a cigarette, marijuana, and alcohol.

Latoya Thompson, the brothers’ mother, said she was shocked at the deadly turn of events.

She, too, confirmed that the siblings had quarrels for some time.

“Right now, mi sorry fi mi big son. Mi sorry for him,” Thompson, the mother of five boys, said.

Thompson said that the son on the run was her youngest.

The mother said the remaining siblings are hurting from the double tragedy.

Palmer said the fleeing brother struggled with losing his father and had dropped out of school at age 14.

“Because him father dead, him nuh know no fada from him born, so more time, if someone should see him and say, ‘Go away, you father dead, him get angry and irritable.”

The grandmother is making a public offer to take him in to the Spanish Town police.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com