Mom in custody after 8-y-o dies in Westmoreland fire

WESTERN BUREAU

The mother of schoolboy Jahmiel Richardson has been taken into police custody after the eight-year-old perished in a fire at his Top Lincoln home in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, on the weekend.

Sherone McDonald is expected to remain in custody pending the outcome of an investigation.

The death of Richardson, who was a student at the Peggy Barry Primary School in the parish, has plunged the school and his already shaken community of Top Lincoln into mourning.

“This tragedy has shocked us. We were not expecting anything of this sort, and I am really saddened by it to the point that I am not able to sleep,” said Koren Fraser Williams, principal of Peggy Barry Primary School.

“His death has touched me, and the entire school community is shaken up by it,” the principal said of Richardson, in a Gleaner interview Sunday, recalling that he was a quiet little boy.

Alone in house

Reports from the Morgan’s Bridge police in Westmoreland are that about 11:40 p.m. on Friday, Richardson was alone in the house when it caught fire.

The police said his mother, who was on the outside, raised an alarm and the fire department was contacted. After cooling-down operations, the lifeless body of Jahmiel was seen lying on the ground.

He was taken to the hospital, where his death was confirmed.

The deadly house fire in Top Lincoln follows the death of 16-year-old Carson Barrett, who is from an address in the same community and who was shot dead a day earlier by one of two gangsters.

He was a grade-10 student at the Grange Hill High School at the time of his death.

Richardson, who was a grade-three student, lost his life on the back end of the death of 15-year-old Raniel Plummer of Irwin High School in St James at the hands of his 14-year-old schoolmate, who is now charged with murder.

But Fraser Williams, who manages a student population of more than 200, said she was expecting an overwhelming impact as students and teachers return to school this morning.

“Our parents are all saddened by the news of Jahmiel’s death just judging by the response to a message I shared in the parent-teacher association (PTA) WhatsApp group. They are very disturbed by this tragedy,” the principal said.

“It’s going to be a hard one for his grade-three classmates.”