Drive-by victims were warned to stay away from funeral
Published:Wednesday | November 23, 2022 | 12:09 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
RELATIVES OF of Tavoy Cummings, the five-year-old boy who was shot and killed Sunday at a funeral in John’s Hall, St James, said his parents were warned not to attend the event.
The boy’s grandfather, John Sterling, said that he had a premonition early that day.
The funeral was being held at John’s Hall Seventh-day Adventist Church for Tommanie Donovan Walters, who was stabbed to death in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, on September 20.
Sterling explained that Walters and another man were living in their community for some time prior to his death.
The other man, known only as ‘Isis’, was one of the victims who sustained gunshot wounds in Sunday’s incident.
Sterling said both parents had received text messages that they should not have attended the funeral as it would be attacked.
“Him mother shouldn’t carry him go a that place, not even him mother should a go, because them did get warning say them mustn’t go deh ‘cause them going to dead,” Sterling said in a Gleaner interview.
“Of course, them get warning by all text from people up deh say them mustn’t come up deh, and them still disobey the order and gone.”
The child’s grandfather got news of the deadly attack while returning from the Jamaica Labour Party annual conference in Kingston.
Reports are that about 3 p.m., Tavoy, his mother, and father, as well as 24-year-old Semiu Shaw, otherwise called ‘Isis’ of Church Lincoln in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, were in the process of leaving the funeral in a white Toyota Axio motor car when they were attacked.
Two men drove up and opened fire, hitting Tavoy, his father, and Shaw. The boy’s mother escaped unharmed.
The wounded victims were rushed to hospital where the infant and Shaw were pronounced dead. The child’s father was admitted in critical condition.