Dream cut short

Advanced plans by a 20-year-old to open his car-detailing business will never materialise after he was stabbed to death by an attacker late Tuesday while making his way home on foot from a store.

The incident occurred at the intersection of Wellington and Mona Road, but the now deceased 20-year-old, Taj Chung, reportedly managed to make his way home, where he collapsed.

Chung was rushed to hospital and died while undergoing treatment.

His mother, Gelie Campbell, told The Gleaner that Taj was on his way to his sister’s house when tragedy struck, turning her world upside down.

“I can confirm, based on what several person indicated to me, that he was indeed pounced upon by an assailant from a vehicle,” Campbell said, adding that she is leaving everything up to the investigators.

Big dreams

Taj, according to his mom, was ambitious and had big dreams.

“He was on the verge of starting his own business. He was opening a car-detailing service. He had a passion for cars, and he was a very meticulous human being even though he had a creative side,” Campbell said.

She told The Gleaner that there was a point in time when Taj wanted to venture into graphic design as a career, but those aspirations were sidelined to become a business owner.

Campbell remembers Taj considering himself a spiritual person and that he had had a series of premonitions over his life.

“He sometimes felt it was a burden because oftentimes when he would have been in a place or gone through an incident, he would have felt that it already happened or he could foresee something happening,” Campbell said.

She tried to get him to look at his concern as a blessing and use it to help himself and others.

“I wonder if he had any premonition that this incident was about to occur and so being that he perhaps would have been mentally prepared to defend himself,” Campbell said.

His mother said his last words to her were ‘Mommy, I love you’, sealed with a hug.

“He stared right in my eyes and said, ‘Mommy, no matter what, you don’t ever forget to say I love you’. He said, ‘You hear me?’ and I said, ‘Taj, I love you, too.”

The police say Chung, a student of Cactus Way, Mona Heights, died as a result of injuries received during a confrontation with an unknown assailant.

Reports from the Half-Way Tree Police are that about 9:45 p.m., Chung was seen in a tussle with an unknown man when he suddenly fell to the ground.

He was seen bleeding from a wound to the neck.

Investigations are ongoing.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com