Boy who longed for love drowns at Kingston waterfront

Tensions flared yesterday at the scene of a suspected drowning at the Kingston Harbour as family members publicly expressed anger at how a son who longed for love met his demise while swimming on Tuesday.

Dead is 12-year-old Karif Mitchenere, who attended Tivoli Gardens High School.

Mitchenere, a resident of east Kingston, reportedly went swimming on Tuesday by the waterfront after school with two other boys.

According to eyewitnesses, the boys got into difficulty in the turbulent water and two of them were assisted to safety.

However, Mitchenere submerged and could not be found.

“Dem say him (Mitchenere) help one of dem and come up and go back in for the next one and couldn’t help himself. Dem try, but because him never have on any shirt, dem couldn’t hold him,” a friend of his mother said, within earshot of onlookers and our news team.

The family’s worst fears materialised yesterday around noon when his body washed up, and he was pulled ashore.

This sent grieving family members into anguish and tempers flared, causing the police to intervene.

Mitchenere’s grandmother, Maswin ‘Pam’ Millwood, told The Gleaner that her immediate feeling was just to sleep and never wake again.

“Mi get a call this morning say three of dem jump off, they only save two and they can’t find one. Me tell myself say nothing was wrong with him … . Getting his school bag this morning and his shoes, mi a say something is wrong, him can’t swim,” Millwood said.

Millwood said that she was disturbed that her children chose to air their dirty laundry in public, knowing that Mitchenere wanted love, and she tried her best and wanted everyone to join in.

“This is not the time for it (fussing) … I don’t grow him, but I played my part. Him have another set of family on his father side. I was trying to reach everybody fi play a role and show him some love. I have him at home … send him a school, $700 a day, but when you live in tenement yard and other people have kids, you have to be careful cause things will happen and dem will say a your child when is not him,” Millwood said as she sought to break down the state of affairs surrounding the child.

He once live at 56 Text Lane in Central Kingston, but relocated to 114 Mountain View Avenue.

‘Show him some love’

His grandmother said that Mitchenere had literacy challenges but took time overcoming them with the help of her partner.

“Him nuh rude, but him say him lack of love, so we understand, and what I said to his mother is to show him some love, carry him down to the waterfront, hug him up. You and him take sea breeze. Play with him. Carry him a Devon House and you and him eat ice cream. Rub little cream on him nose and kiss him and say yuh love him mek him see,” Millwood told The Gleaner.

She said her grandson was resented by others who should have been standing by him, begging him to prove them wrong.

“Show them you can be somebody … Mi nuh sleep all now. I was hoping they found him alive and he learnt a lesson. That was my hope … A me pay him school fee. Mi boss help me, and I do everything for him,” she said, adding that she could cope with his behaviour, which was in line with boys his age.

Millwood said Mitchenere did not want her to send him to live with anyone else, but she had no choice.

“I have to work and come home every Friday, but if he was hearing when I talk, maybe he would be at home. But you know kids all over. He wasn’t a child that was disrespectful. He was a respectful child,” Millwood said.

She said he said that he wanted to be an FBI agent.

“With all of this chaos, my mood is like to go to sleep and never wake up. That is my mood for now – sleep and never wake up,” Millwood said, glancing at her children at odds, separated in a time of grief.

Onlookers told The Gleaner that the authorities need to put signage in the area prohibiting swimming.

“This is not the first time people, including children, drown there. If there is no sign then people will think it is safe to go for a swim. A lot of evening children go down there, and some go into the water,” a male passer-by said.

The Kingston Central police are probing the incident.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com