Slain cop’s mother mourns third child in four years

Pamelleta Williams held her stomach and broke down in tears on Thursday upon seeing the team of police officers and officials entering her home in Maxfield Park, St Andrew, to show their support as she grieved the murder of her 22-year-old son, Constable Brian Martin.

“Dem gone wid mi son,” she uttered repeatedly as grief overwhelmed her, and she continued crying for the entirety of the visit of the team, which was led by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang.

Sadly, it is a pain Williams knows all too well as over the past four years, she has lost three of her eight children. Her only daughter died from an illness in 2019. A year later, her eldest son was shot dead in the community. And last Saturday, Martin was fatally shot at a wake on Ricketts Avenue in Maxfield Park, St Andrew.

According to reports, about 10 p.m. on October 15, Martin was among a group of persons at a wake in the community, also known as Frog City, when armed men allegedly approached and opened fire. Five people were shot, including a 10-year-old child.

Martin, who was attached to the Half-Way Tree Police Station, died while being treated at hospital while the other victims were admitted.

The slain cop’s older brother, Malcolm Martin, recalled arriving at the wake in time to hear the bullets being fired that would take his brother’s life.

“I came to pick him up. As mi reach and take out mi phone fi call him, mi hear di shot dem a fire. [We] rushed him into the car to KPH (Kingston Public Hospital), mi and mi mother, and he was still breathing. By the time we reach down there and we carry him go in there, after a few hours, they say they couldn’t ... ,” he told Chang, his voice trailing off.

Malcolm said the traumatic experience of being with his brother in the last minutes of his life was still fresh in his mind.

“It took me three days fi go clean out mi car, and mi couldn’t do it myself. A mi friend dem have to come help mi. Every time mi drive, mi just feel like him deh inna di back seat, and that’s the last place I saw him. Mi can’t eat, mi can’t sleep because it just nuh feel real,” said the grieving brother.

Malcolm made one request of Chang and the police party that visited to offer support to the family: “I want this to be the last death, the last senseless death. It’s always innocent people get the unfortunate part of the situation.

“I don’t want him death to be in vain. I want unnu do all unno can do to catch these men and take them off the road, and this is hard for me to say, but I pray that they receive God; I pray that they get salvation out of this, so dem can change dem wicked ways ‘cause it nuh mek no sense. If you a come fi one man, why would you shoot up an area filled with people and children? It nuh mek sense.”

Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts, head of the St Andrew South Police Division, said a suspect has been held in connection with the murder, which is believed to have stemmed from gang conflict in the area.

Chang said that the police are working hard to ensure that the assailants are brought to justice.

“It was a brutal act, totally uncaring, and my request of the police is to make every effort to find the perpetrators as quickly as possible. Every murder of a Jamaica citizen is painful, but the reality is that young Constable Brian Martin, coming from a tough area, did well and took the right path,” he said.

The minister also pledged to provide ongoing support to the slain cop’s family.

“Brian is the kind of young man and woman we seek to get into the force. Not that we’re devaluing anybody’s life, but it is really painful to see us lose a young man like Brian so brutally,” Chang added. “It’s difficult to comprehend how the mother is feeling. She’s lost three of her children, and the family is in severe trauma.”

Up to October 18 of this year, the St Andrew South Police Division had recorded 117 murders, 17 fewer compared to the corresponding period in 2021.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com