‘He was my best son’
Clarendon mother mourns as four shot, one fatally, in Hayes
Published:Tuesday | January 7, 2025 | 12:21 AMCorey Robinson/Senior Staff Reporter
Shirley Morgan-Bowen was attending a church crusade in Hayes, Clarendon, on Sunday night when gunshots rang out a short distance away.
But Morgan-Bowen said she was so caught up in the intense worship session that she did not hear the gunfire that sent persons at the scene scampering for cover. Neither did she realise that her son had been murdered and three other people injured just metres away.
Deputy Police Superintendent (DSP) Owen Brown of the May Pen Police Station in Clarendon told The Gleaner that 31-year-old Daniel Bowen was shot by men firing handguns, and that the other victims were hospitalised – two with minor flesh wounds and one in serious condition.
About 8:30 p.m., the victims were reportedly among a group of people relaxing in a yard – a popular hangout spot for the men in the community – when three gunmen alighted from a vehicle and started chasing and firing at them, Brown said, adding that police were still collecting statements.
In an eerie twist, it was Morgan-Bowen who directed the first police patrol towards the scene, only to find out minutes later that her son – a beloved security guard from the area – was the main subject of their visit.
She told The Gleaner yesterday afternoon that Bowen’s murder has triggered a whirlwind of despair for her. She recalled hearing that he had died following surgeries at the May Pen Hospital.
“All of the shots went up to the upper body. Pure chest shots; nothing was wrong with down at his belly. And it looked as if one of the shots broke one of his hands,” said the despondent mother.
HUMBLE AND RESPECTFUL
Bowen was the fourth of her seven children, and notably the most humble and respectful of the lot, she said.
“He was [everything] to me. He was a son, a brother, and a friend. He was patient, humble, and he was not a child who back-answered or fought his mother. If I even say something and him vex, he wouldn’t respond, him gone,” she said, adding that he was a dependable breadwinner, who remained focused even after his father, also a security guard, was killed on the job 20 years ago.
“Last week, he got paid and he gave me $8,000 and said, ‘Mommy, don’t worry, Mommy, ‘cause I am going to make you alright, ‘cause I don’t want you to be in need of anything.’ That was the last conversation me and him had,” said the elderly woman.
Residents said Bowen, who they recalled being hardworking, fell while trying to flee his attackers, who then stood over him and shot him several times. Nonetheless, they do not believe he was the intended target.
DSP Brown told The Gleaner that Bowen was never on the police’s radar for any crimes committed in Clarendon.
Already, two persons of interest have been picked up and were undergoing processing in relation to the murder and shooting up to late yesterday evening.
“I can’t say that any conflict is going on in the area right now. We just understand that the men were on their phones scrolling when the car drove up and the men started firing,” offered Brown. “At the moment we can’t say that there are any gang wars going on because we never had that intel, either before or after the incident in that area.
“The argument in the street is that he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. But we are still on the scene and we are still carrying out investigations to see where this is coming from,” Brown added.