‘That still won’t bring back my son’

Monday’s killing of the main suspect in the murder of police Constable Jermaine Bennett of Gregory Park, Portmore, has been greeted as welcome news to the family of the slain cop, but they say the agony of their loss has not subsided.

Eugene Barrett, mother of the deceased constable, speaking from London, told The Gleaner that she was happy to hear that one of her son’s suspected killers had been stopped in his tracks.

“I feel much better, because I can’t sleep at night since him kill my son. I will sleep better tonight, but that still won’t bring back my son,” Barrett said on Monday evening.

“I just keep hearing his voice. I know it is God keeping me, lots of prayer. The first day I hear the news it was like the top of my head lifting off.”

Barrett said she and her daughter will be travelling to Jamaica to pay their final respects.

Monique Thelwell, a sister to Bennett, praised the police for hunting down one of her brother’s alleged killers and said she would be fully relieved when the other perpetrators are caught.

“I am feeling happy with the news so far, really happy that they caught one of them, but the pain is unbearable,” she said.

Thelwell said she had warned her brother about visiting certain communities.

“I don’t know what get into him that he went there without proper protection. I don’t know when I will get over this,” she said.

Bennett was reportedly unarmed.

The main suspect was killed in an alleged shoot-out with the police in Waterford, Portmore, about 4:30 p.m. Two firearms were seized.

The police have not yet released the identity of the dead man.

The suspect has been on the police radar for quite some time for murders committed in the parish, a source told The Gleaner on Monday.

Bennett, 36, was shot and killed by assailants last Wednesday night when he went to visit his five-week-old daughter in Gregory Park.

Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson visited the family on Good Friday to offer condolences.

Murders have increased by 10 per cent in the St Catherine South Police Division where Gregory Park is located.

There were 34 murders between January 1 and March 30 this year, three more than for the corresponding period in 2020.

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