HORROR
Mom devastated after 2-y-o daughter dies in fire, partner killed by gunmen
Published:Saturday | September 17, 2022 | 12:09 AMRuddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer
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A St Catherine woman is beside herself in grief after her two-year-old daughter perished in a blaze on Friday morning after falling from her arms as she fled their burning house, moments after gunmen invaded the dwelling and killed her partner...
A St Catherine woman is beside herself in grief after her two-year-old daughter perished in a blaze on Friday morning after falling from her arms as she fled their burning house, moments after gunmen invaded the dwelling and killed her partner before setting it afire.
The incident, which unfolded in Horizon Park in Spanish Town about 4 a.m., startled several neighbours, who were awakened by the loud explosions.
The dead man has been identified as Javaughn Parcell and the infant as Aliyah Gilzeane.
The mother of the infant escaped physically unharmed.
“Dem come and knock on the door and say, ‘Police’, and mi tell him (Parcell) not to open the door because dem nuh sound like police,” the weeping mother told reporters on Friday. “Dem then fling something through the window and hit out the glass and we go in the next room and lock the door.”
The woman said that three men then entered the room and shot her partner in his abdomen, but when he started to fight back, their cronies fired several rounds, killing him.
“When the gunshot done, dem still a click the gun, and then mi start to smell smoke so mi run wid mi baby, but she drop out of mi hand and mi come back in and hear her crying, ‘Mommy, Mommy’, but mi couldn’t see her,” she related.
The terrified woman then ran to a neighbour’s house for refuge, but no one was home, so she made her escape by running through an open lot.
When the police and firefighters arrived at the location, the house was still engulfed in flames.
Parcell’s charred remains and those of young Aliyah were recovered from the burnt-out two-bedroom house.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Fitz Albert Linton, who is in charge of operations in the St Catherine North Police Division, said that investigators were following some leads but it was still early days in the investigation.
Senior Superintendent Dennis Lyon, who is in charge of the Jamaica Fire Brigade’s St Catherine Division, said one unit responded to the fire call at 4:08 a.m., but the emergency team was unable to save the premises because it was constructed out of wood.
He estimated value of the building to be about $2 million.
Up to Thursday, the St Catherine North Police Division had recorded 103 murders since the start of the year, a 45.1 year-on-year increase. Shootings were also up in the division, with 68 incidents for 2022, compared to 50 for the corresponding period last year.