Force Cocoa Piece killer to witness slain family being buried - bishop

Cecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer 

Today, as family and friends say their final goodbyes to Kemesha Wright and her four children Kimanda Smith, Shara-Lee Smith, Rafaella Smith, and 23-month-old Keshawn Henry, Bishop Rowan Edwards wants self-confessed murderer Rushane Barrett to witness them being laid in their graves.

“I hope that they make him view it. Let him see five people being put into the hole and someone should watch his face and see how it looks, to see if it was worth killing these five people,” the clergyman, who pastors the Lighthouse Assembly in Spanish Town, told The Gleaner.

Edwards, who has been fighting crime through prayer and initiatives such as 10,000 Men March, said he, too, has been a victim of crime.

“My father died when I was six months in my mother’s womb. He died on Hagley Park Road from a gunshot and I don’t know a father. I don’t know where he was buried, I have never seen a picture of him. That speaks volumes to me, hence I am prepared,” said Edwards, who will be one of several officiating ministers at this morning's funeral at the Stuart Hall Auditorium, Clarendon College, in Chapelton.

Edwards said that the slaughter of the mother and four children, including a 23-month-old baby, had left him devastated.

He is hoping the funeral will send a message across the length and breadth of Jamaica that the country is taking a stand.

Days before Jamaica marks 60 years of Independence, he said the country should not be going through it at this stage.

“Now because this happened, five people were killed. I am pushing to see if for the next five months, crime will take a decline. I am pushing for this hard. So we as the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches combine our efforts today. We are doing prayers in all the churches asking God to reduce murders,” he said.

For those who are questioning how God could have allowed the tragedy to happen, Edwards dispelled the notion of divine responsibility, saying mankind was given free will and must account for its sins.

He is rallying the Church to come on board and point men back to God.

Barnett, 23, a cousin of the deceased, pleaded guilty to the murders on Thursday.

He said he committed the murders because he was disrespected by Wright.

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com

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