Kgn Western families rocked by killing of 2 young men

The families in Kingston Western are battling grief and trauma after two young men, ages 17 and 20, were gunned down hours apart on Monday evening.

Johana Williams told The Gleaner that her son, Jermaine McKenzie, a 17-year-old student of Tivoli Gardens High, did not heed her plea to not leave the yard because of a gut feeling.

The Tivoli Gardens resident said her son, a footballer, ventured to Denham Town for a community league game.

No stranger to the space in Denham Town, known as ‘John Crow Town’, she said McKenzie always believed warring factions would not harm him because he is a child and did not get involved in wrongdoing.

“I tell him don’t go and him still go,” an emotional Williams said.

“ ... Him go because him a baller and him trust everybody and say him nah dead. ‘Mi nuh in a nuh badness, so me free fi walk.’ Him always go visit him friends dem who him and dem go same school,” said her sister, Anisha Dean.

They describe the youngster as very respectful, athletic and jovial.

They told The Gleaner that he was shot in the head and abdomen.

“The likkle youth a beg for him life and all urinate on himself and dem still kill him,” Dean said, adding that her nephew struggled with a speech impediment throughout his life.

Jermaine’s grandmother, Janet Powell, said the war between Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town has been raging for years, but the Denham Town gangsters have been killing women and children.

The family said they have also not recovered from the loss of a 16-year-old relative who was killed a year ago.

And added to that, they also have the funeral of a 17-year-old neighbour, who was killed in April along Albert Street in Denham Town.

An eight-year-old boy told The Gleaner that he is fearful because a lot of youngsters are dying around him.

“I feel bad and I cry. I am afraid … . I cry. All in a mi sleep, mi a dream about my uncle. I can’t forget him,” the lad said, adding that his uncle’s murder four years ago still haunts him.

Dean said that when she heard the explosions sometime after 9 p.m., she was unaware it was her relative being killed.

“Dem just a kill out the next generation. The youth dem weh nah fire gun and free to walk, a dem a dead off,” she said, crying.

SUMMONED TO SCENE

The police said they were earlier summoned to Gem Road off Maxfield Avenue about 7:30 p.m., also on Monday, where 20-year-old Tyrique McLish was gunned down.

McLish also attended Tivoli Gardens High School.

His mother, Marguerita Rainford, was inconsolable as she sat on his bed speaking to The Gleaner.

Rainford said she ran outside when she heard the gunshots to find her son – the second of her three children – on his face.

The mother said she took him up and held him against her, where he uttered the final words, “Mommy, I love you.”

“Next week is his birthday, the 26th … . No light nuh deh pon the street from the hurricane and him and him father just fix the light … . Same time mi hear ‘Blam! Blam!’, and mi run out in a di shot dem,” Rainford said, adding that McLish’s eyes shut while he was in her arms.

On Tuesday, she was clutching a pair of sneakers she had purchased as a surprise gift for his birthday.

“Mi go yesterday (Monday) and buy it for his birthday … . Tyrique nuh disrespect people, nuh matter who. Tyrique have manners to everybody,” Rainford said through tears.

She said he did construction work to be independent and support his four-year-old son.

Rainford believes that her son was targeted because of his association with everybody in the space.

“Him ride him bike, him look him girl. The gun thing, him nuh tangle up in a dem something deh,” a tearful Rainford said.

The Kingston Western police are probing both murders.

Meanwhile, the Kingston Western Police Division recorded a 40 per cent year-on-year reduction in murders as at July 13, with 29 people killed this year, compared to 48 over the corresponding period in 2023.

All other major crimes were down.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com