Dudus legacy lives on

The chilling discovery of the bodies of four men near Tivoli Gardens on Tuesday has deepened the wounds of Francine Tomlinson, whose 17-year-old son Omario Williams is believed to have met his demise under similar circumstances.

Omario has been missing since September 17 last year after reportedly being summoned by members of the Coke criminal network, which operates from the inner-city community.

The Shower Posse Gang run by now-convicted gunrunner and drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was degraded in a police-military operation in 2010, but Tomlinson insists that the remnants of Coke’s mafia are still committing murders. Dudus was extradited and convicted in the United States.

“It is so unfair for the Americans to say them take out Dudus and leave him people them fi still a do them something here same way,” a distraught Tomlinson said in a telephone interview with The Gleaner Tuesday evening.

Omario had left a note for his sister, Brianna McKenzie, telling her that men from the garrison, said to be run by a “system”, would be transporting him to a woman high up the chain of the criminal enterprise. The meeting was scheduled to occur in a section of the community called Lizard Town.

The summons came after a shooting incident that occurred earlier that day in Seaview Gardens, St Andrew.

Omario is said to have been picked up from his Eastwood Park Road workplace by a high-school friend and another man to travel to Seaview where he operated a chicken farm.

The friend, according to Tomlinson, is the son of the woman who summoned Omario.

Speaking from a secure location, Tomlinson told The Gleaner that the three travelled to the community where they were involved in the shooting.

The police were quick on the scene and managed to track and apprehend Omario’s friend at a house off Red Hills Road in St Andrew, Tomlinson said.

The 40-year-old mother of four said Omario and the other man, whose identity is unknown, escaped.

He subsequently received a telephone call from the Tivoli woman, who reportedly told him that she needed him to explain what occurred.

The teen has not been seen or heard from since he left the note at home indicating that he had gone to see the woman.

A missing person report was filed with the police and several reports were made at the Stadium Gardens, Denham Town, Hunts Bay, and Half-Way Tree police stations, Tomlinson said.

She said a report was also made at the Office of the Commissioner of Police, but to date, very little effort has been made to locate the teen, who, at the time, was awaiting the results of his Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations from Excelsior High School, where he was a student.

Tomlinson claimed that she has been cautioned by several lawmen to consider the case closed, while others have reportedly said that it was difficult to enter sections of Tivoli without stirring up strife.

She said that futile searches have been conducted on the outskirts of the community following reports from residents that Omario was seen being dragged to “the slaughterhouse” in Rasta City in the community.

“It look like seh Tivoli untouchable. Everybody ‘fraid of there so. It look like a Tivoli run everywhere,” the mother said.

“So when this story come up with the four man them, I said to myself, ‘The people them who give me the information were right,’” she said, referring to the discovery of the mutilated remains of four men found in shallow graves in the community.

The men, who were reportedly from Denham Town, went missing on Saturday.

Tomlinson is lamenting that the police have not offered useful assistance in her quest for justice.

The Gleaner contacted Senior Superintendent Marlon Nesbeth, head of the St Andrew Central Police Division, who said that he was not aware of the case, which has “so many speculations and suggestions”.

Nesbeth urged Tomlinson to report the matter again.

In an independent search, a tearful Tomlinson said she has been taken to a section of May Pen Cemetery, called Poorman’s Land, and shown numerous shallow graves, boxes, and body bags which proved too heart-rending to scour to find her son. She is certain that he has been murdered.

Tomlinson said she finally confronted the high-ranking woman in the Coke gang who she believes is responsible for Omario’s disappearance.

“Mi a say two of we know how baby pain feel. How she fi do this to a next mother?

“Mi reach out to her and mi cry, mi go down on mi knees and mi beg her. Mi say, ‘Do, just tell mi where him deh. All she a seh is she nuh know nothing ... ,’” said Tomlinson.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com