Family in turmoil as gunmen kill 24-y-o go-getter

Romario Ewart was determined to break the cycle of poverty in his family and create a better life for himself and his family.

The aspiring businessman, at 24, was a taxi driver, university student, newly certified truck driver, and soon-to-be Jamaica Constabulary Force recruit.

But the ambitious young man’s dreams and goals were dashed on Sunday night, when he was killed, along with a passenger identified only as ‘Boysie’, whom he had transported to Admiral Town in Kingston.

Ewart’s body was found with gunshot wounds in his taxi cab along Asquith Road, more commonly known as ‘No Man’s Land’, while Boysie’s body was found in bushes a short distance away.

Residents had reportedly heard gunshots minutes after 11 p.m. on Sunday night.

Ewart’s girlfriend, Kadian Findlay, and his sister, Shantel Ewart, with whom he resided, were in shock and deep despair when The Gleaner visited their home on Monday.

Findlay, who broke down in tears, recalled waking up on Monday morning at 8:00 with a feeling of doom after being awakened by a nightmare in which her older brother had stabbed her younger brother to death.

Findlay said that she quickly looked around for her partner, and on not seeing him, she was overcome by terrible feeling.

“Romario no sleep out, so this was quite unlike him,” she said.

Findlay said her thoughts, however, were never that her beloved was killed, but maybe that he had been in an accident or had been arrested for unpaid traffic tickets.

The young woman, who remembered Ewart leaving the house on Sunday night to purchase gas, said that she left the house crying and drove around in the community looking for his car.

With no sign of him, she went to the Half-Way Tree Police Station to check if he had been arrested, but was directed to Denham Town Police Station, where she later learned that police had found a body, but the details were sketchy.

Findlay, who had also checked at the Kingston Public Hospital without success, said that when she returned home, she found out that Ewart went to Admiral Town on a chartered trip.

“For some reason, me just did a pray fi him this morning,” she said.

“Him is a hustler, for him is all about money. Him want get 100 things done,” she said of her partner. “Him just complete a certificate course in trucking, him say him a go do construction, him say him a go buy more taxi.”

While his short-term plan was to acquire one more car, Findlay said his immediate plan was to complete his degree in logistics at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean. He had two years of studies left.

“Him just did wah change the cycle of poverty in a him life and him did determine to get it done because even though his parents lived overseas, he was independent and he was goal-oriented and wanted to do so much,” she added.

Findlay, who had been with Ewart for five years, said there was also a mutual agreement to delay parenthood until they had achieved some amount of success.

“You have some people who are thinkers, some who are planners, but he was a doer. If him get up this morning and tell you that he was going to get something done, he will get it done.

“Him never limit himself to no one thing, but he had a love for driving taxi because all of us was against him driving taxi, but he wanted to drive taxi. He wanted to own a lot of cars. He wanted to do rentals and use it as a pathway to other businesses,” she added.

Findlay said it will be hard to get over what has happened.

“Romario is my everything. Him a mi friend, a mi closest person,” she said through tears.

Ewart’s sister, Shantel, was in disbelief.

“I can’t believe say him really gone fi true,” she said, adding that she screamed when she saw his body.

Shantel said she went to bed believing that Ewart was home on Sunday night, having seen his car parked outside, and never knew that he had left the house.

“Grandma a bawl, daddy a bawl, his mummy crying; it’s crazy,” she said.

Shantel said that her brother was not involved in any wrongdoing and she does not know of him ever being in any conflict and he was friendly with everyone.

“It’s just a wrong charter and him drive the wrong place at the wrong time,” she added. “It’s a charter weh him shouldn’t take.”

The Major Investigation Division is investigating the double homicide and is asking anyone who can assist with the investigation to make contact.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com