Heartache as murders spiral

It appeared to be just another Friday afternoon for 55-year-old Fay Desgoutte as she prepared jerk pork and chicken meals for sale at the Kingston 10 premises that double as home and business on Newleigh Avenue, Cassia Park.

But May 27 was anything but routine.

Collin Brooks, Desgoutte’s common-law spouse, is still traumatised by the recollection of his fleeing partner falling to the ground after being shot four times by gunmen.

He recalled Desgoutte being seated near him and a regular client when the tragedy unfolded.

With his back turned to the entrance of the residence, Brooks heard the ear-splitting terror of bullets piercing his partner’s body and her bellows for help as she ran to safety.

“All me coulda hear was when she say, ‘Jesus!’ and she run from there and she just drop ... . The shot go right through her chest,” he said.

“This thing happen so fast, me don’t even know say a man deh behind me ‘cause me a wonder how she run and go over there, and by the time me hear she say ‘Jesas’, a behind me the man deh a shoot her,” Brooks added.

Desgoutte’s murder is part of a spiralling wave of bloodshed in Jamaica, which, up to last week, recorded a surge in murder of 6.5 per cent year-on-year.

That spike is not restricted to the Corporate Area, but has been at the centre of concern in western Jamaica, where feuding gangs are trading currency in blood.

Two men, Jason Traile, 28, and Andre Dennis, 26, were gunned down in their home town of Duncans, Trelawny, in a Saturday evening gun attack in which two other men were injured.

Andrea Melbourne, mother of Dennis, heard the gunshots but never thought that her son would have been among the victims.

“It was long after he was taken to the hospital before I was told. When I went there, I did not get to see him,” the mother said.

“Everybody is crying, but I am trying to stay strong, but it is difficult,” the mother of four disclosed.

Taneisha Traile, sister of Jason, described him as hard working and kind.

“He is always working with his compressors doing jobs for different companies and people. He leaves out early in the morning to tend to his cows. I feel it deep down,” she said.

Superintendent Winston Milton of the Trelawny police reported that four men drove up in a white Toyota Voxy motor car and asked for two of the eventual shooting victims. When they were identified, the assailants opened fire just outside a garage.

At least thirty 9mm cartridges were taken from the crime scene. The incident happened about 7:50 p.m.

Milton said that early investigations suggest that the murders are the result of a gang feud between two criminal cells originating in Duncans.

Nineteen people have been murdered in Trelawny since January.

Jamaica is among the three most murderous countries in the Americas, ranging annually between 40 and 60 killings per 100,000 population.

That grim statistic is around four times the regional average.

Crime is believed to cost more than five per cent of gross domestic product annually, but its corrosive consequence on society runs deeper than dollars and cents.

The sense of loss is palpable but inestimable.

Back in Cassia Park, it was only on Sunday afternoon that Brooks made his first attempt to eat a meal since Friday’s attack, he said.

Brooks characterised his late partner as jovial, loving, and well-liked.

“She was always smiling ... she was a pleasant woman,” he said.

“It terrible, I’m telling you. Terrible.”

Brooks recalled that the attackers who killed his partner wore ski masks. He said he is still unsure about the motive of the attack and why his life was spared.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s communications unit said it was unclear how many assailants were involved in the Desgoutte murder, nor has a motive been established.

Desgoutte’s second son, 24-year-old Doniel Brooks, described his mother as a woman who rarely went out but who focused on tending to her shop, which is located on the same premises as their home.

When he heard news of his mom’s death, he frenetically drove home from work, with a passenger warning him to relax and not speed.

He is still in shock about the incident.

“Every time me walk past, me always look pon the spot,” he said, noting that he was greeted with a pool of blood where his mother had lain lifeless.

“Me try question it ... . Me nuh know where fi start because knowing she, ... she nuh trouble nobody,” he said.