Fireman’s family, friends in disbelief after stabbing death in US

Family members and friends of firefighter Shamere Myrie were looking forward to his return on Wednesday, and the last thing they would have expected to hear was that he was killed in a stabbing incident as they knew him to be a peacemaker.

The 33-year-old resident of Rum Lane in Kingston, who recently went overseas on vacation leave, was reportedly killed during an incident with another Jamaican at a company in Gaylord, Michigan, where they were both temporary workers.

Both men were reportedly found with severe lacerations and puncture wounds and were transported to the hospital, where Myrie died while the other man underwent emergency surgery.

Myrie’s sister, Shaqueena Mattocks, who was in tears as she spoke with The Gleaner yesterday, said her brother’s death has left the family in shock and grief.

“Everyone is in disbelief, like him shouldn’t dead suh, the way him dead. Him nuh mix up, so fi dead by knife me never imagine dat and mi nuh know. Mi brother jovial, always a smile, humble, progressive,” she said, sniffling. “Him love him family. Him love him two kids dem.”

Mattocks emphasised that her brother was not a troublemaker, a fact that made his death all the more shocking to everyone.

“My brother is all about parties, fashion, him family, him work, football. Mi brother nuh trouble people, He is a peace maker. Him no do conflict. Everyone can attest to dat,” she added.

Asked how she was coping with his death, Mattocks said: “I am not doing well. Mi and mi brother really close. We grow together. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. Mi have a baby and mi can’t function. Every minute mi look pon a picture with him, mi gone inna tears, like me just numb.”

She said her mother, for whom her brother was the eldest and the second of two boys, is also not doing well and constantly breaks down in tears.

Noting that her brother has two children, a one-year-old and an 11-year-old son, she explained that the older child is really hurting.

“He cries and said the pain is more on the inside,” Mattocks said of her nephew.

According to the grieving sister, her brother was looking forward to enjoying the rest of the summer with his children and upgrading his car on his return.

One of the ‘humblest’

At the Trench Town Fire Station, where Myrie worked, the atmosphere was sorrowful as co-workers spoke of him and how his death had affected them.

They all chorused that he was one of the “humblest” persons they knew and that he was very quiet and reserved.

One of his close friends, Ramon Brivitt, said he was home on Saturday, having connectivity issues when he checked his phone and saw 15 missed calls and was informed about the devastating news when he returned one of the calls.

“I hang up same time to how it shock me,” he said while describing his colleague as an elite fireman who loved his job.

He recalled with a smile one of his last conversations with Myrie while he, too, was on leave. In the conversation, which was a three-way call with another colleague who is also on leave, Myrie had said, “If we nuh come back, the brigade inna shambles”.

Myries’ best friend, Kamaro Morgan, who called him a brother, appeared very emotional and had to sit during an interview with The Gleaner.

“Yesterday, when me hear, mi bawl, and when mi go home mi waa sleep and caa sleep,” he said.

In the meantime, Mattocks said the family is anxious to know what exactly transpired as they don’t know the details except for what was in the media.

“We would want to know because a work him go up to work, and we never hear of him being in anything,” she said.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com