The shooting death of project manager and Jamaica Labour Party activist Anthony Scully halted a drain-cleaning and beautification project in Waterford, Portmore, on Wednesday.
Suzette Greenland, who was being consoled by friends on Wednesday, told The Gleaner that the 33-year-old Scully, the first of her six children, was her everything.
“Every night, if him come in 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock, him cook, and is not like mi waiting for a meal, and nuh care if me a sleep, him wake me up and say come for a plate. Everything inna mi house, a him. Mi nuh leave him, and him nuh leave me,” she said.
Scully died leaving an infant daughter, who wandered among the sombre adults. Greenland faced the daunting task of explaining to the child that her dad was no longer alive.
Scully’s younger brother, Garfield Peters, 19, said that he lost a motivator.
“Him push me to do certain things and always a bring me go on work, so all when mi confidence bruck, a him always a bring it up back,” Peters said.
Reports are that about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Scully was cleaning the gully at a section of Fourth World, Waterford, when he was shot twice by a lone gunman.
An eyewitness said Scully was hit in the chest and fell into the gully.
The gunman then shot him in the back before making his escape.
He was rushed to the Spanish Town Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
JLP councillor caretaker for Waterford, Krisho Holmes, assisted in transporting Scully to hospital. Holmes had left him minutes before the attack to buy lunch for the workmen.
Holmes, along with Robert Miller, member of parliament for St Catherine South Eastern, wept openly at the crime scene.
“Mr Scully has been a Labourite and he has been on the ground with me for the last five years as my right hand in Waterford. I don’t know of him having any questionable character,” Holmes said of Scully, who was also a bearer.
Miller lamented the scourge of violent crime that has seen murders rise 10 per cent nationally. Portmore has not escaped its tentacles.
“I denounce this cruel act, and I just ask members of the JCF to play their part and ensure no stone is left unturned until we find the perpetrator for this crime,” Miller said.
The MP said he was particularly hurt by the death because it was just last week that Scully expressed an interest in participating in the clean-up.
The first-time MP told The Gleaner that Scully was never shy about declaring his political preference.
Waterford is a community politically affiliated with the Opposition People’s National Party, said Miller.
“He loves his politics, he loves his people, and it doesn’t matter the political line, from what I am getting on the ground. Everybody just loves Scully,” said Miller.
The MP was emphatic that there was no suggestion that the killing was politically motivated.
The gully-cleaning project was financed from funds allocated to each member of parliament for pre-Christmas beautification.