Dad broken by shooting death of J’can son in Florida

The father of a Jamaican man who was gunned down in Lauderdale Lakes in Florida on Sunday was reduced to tears yesterday as he remembered his youngest child and his reluctance to send him to the United States (US).

Shakief Brown, 27, reportedly died in a Florida hospital in the aftermath of a gun attack on Sunday.

His attacker was also shot and died on the spot, according to US media reports.

Both men were reportedly friends before things got sour.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call around 11:05 a.m. about shots being fired in the 3000 block of Northwest 41st Street.

Neville ‘Moses’ Brown, Shakief’s father, spoke to The Gleaner yesterday from his business establishment in Stony Hill, St Andrew.

“A mi heart and soul that, enuh. My heart and soul that. A Friday him send a money come give mi and mi fi talk to him inna the night,” Brown said tearfully.

He said Shakief was the youngest of three children.

“A mi pamper him, grow him, carry him to school and everything. Mi never want send him go foreign,” Brown said, adding that his son migrated at age 10.

He told The Gleaner that the deciding factor was when Shakief was diagnosed with a learning disorder.

“Mi carry him go Mico and they assess him and say I should carry him up to School of Hope ... and it was the same time to take him to do his medical. His mother was worried about him and mi a say [he could migrate] since as they (US) supposed to have better expert, but a mistake mi make,” Brown said.

Brown said his son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that he was told what would likely happen.

“Dem say if him go pon the good side, he would be a genius, and if he went on the bad side, he would be a ‘Dudus’,” Brown told The Gleaner.

He said, out of concern, he sent the assessment with Shakief when he migrated for them to follow up.

Shakief got in trouble with the law while he was living in Florida, but his father was optimistic because he began to show some change and started a family.

“Him conscious same way, but him have a time when him nah tek the medication ... . Him have the Rasta mentality. I wanted to check attorney Miguel Lorne because mi a say that a the only way mi a go save my youth,” Brown said, adding he wanted to make a connection between Lorne and Dr Umar Johnson, who visited Jamaica recently.

The Gleaner was told that Shakief’s mother survived a gun attack several years ago in a Florida nightclub and Brown, who was in New York at the time, said he watched the report on CNN.

Multiple persons were shot and injured as the shooter fired indiscriminately.

The shooter in that incident, The Gleaner understands, was killed by the nightclub’s security.

Shakief’s aunt, who was also on hand, was too distraught to speak on record and kept breaking down in tears.

Brown said it was her wailing that he heard when he arrived home Sunday that made him instantly realise something was terribly wrong.

He had no idea it was Shakief who met his demise.

“Mi go buy ice cream and I heard her on some cow bawling and I said ‘I wonder if it was her daughter something happened to’ ... mi see some youth run go over there and come back here and say ‘Shakief dead, enuh’,” Brown, a retired sound system operator, said with tears streaking down his face.

HOPE LOST

He said he had hopes after learning soon thereafter that Shakief was in the emergency room.

“But mi never have no hope again ... . Mi feel it for my boy. Mi feel it. A fi mi boy that, man. If mi did talk to him Friday, mi nuh know, maybe him would change his mind, inna mi conscience. Him do him journey ... . A fi him short journey that. It was short, though, because mi and him enjoyed the little life,” Brown said.

He said he recently wanted to renew his passport so he could visit his son and help him get the treatment he deserved.

“Mi nuh lef him, man. All when him a big man and come ya and him out a road, ... mi and him deh deh, and him say, ‘Daddy, mi alright’, and mi say, ‘No, man, a mi and you this, enuh’. Mi nuh know when mi a go recover,” Brown said.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office is actively probing Sunday’s double killing, which has left an entire community on edge.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com