The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the death of a man found with gunshot wounds on Carmichael Road early Sunday morning, marking the country’s 103rd murder this year.

Officers responded shortly before 8am after the unresponsive body was discovered near Unison Road. Emergency Medical Services arrived, but found no signs of life.

This latest murder follows a deadly shooting in Fox Hill last Monday, in which three men were killed in one of the deadliest single incidents in recent years. The brazen afternoon attack on Step Street left residents shaken as three masked men with high-powered rifles got out of a vehicle, and opened fire on a group gathered near a roadside garage.

 The Fox Hill shooting, underscored the ongoing violence in the community and prompted an emergency meeting of the Advisory Crime Council at the Fox Hill Community Centre.

 Led by Dr David Allen, the meeting, structured around his Family: People Helping People support group, gave grieving residents a platform to share their pain and discuss the impacts of crime on their lives.

 Donna McCoy, a Fox Hill resident, who lost her only child, Alverez, in a shooting outside her home in January 2023, shared how her grief resurfaces as new violence strikes the community.

 “Yes, it brought back memories,” she said. “It just brought back when the shooting happened to him in my yard, but just like any mother who lost their child, the memory will come back. You cannot really explain it because it’s a feeling that, if you didn’t go through it, you wouldn’t understand.”

 Despite her pain, Ms McCoy expressed gratitude for the group sessions, which she has attended for two weeks, calling them a “blessing.”

 She also shared her commitment to remain in Fox Hill despite the concerns of family members.

 “I’m not uneasy living in the community despite the shootings and things,” she told The Tribune on the sidelines of the group session.

 “My grandchild tells me, ‘Grammy, you have to move someplace else,’ but I tell them no, it’s all right. This is where God has me planted, and this is where I have to deal with the people in the community.”

 Another Fox Hill resident, Sonia Kemp, whose son was a victim of the 2013 Fox Hill massacre, echoed the sense of unease, but explained that she has “left it in God’s hands” after feeling there would be no justice.

 “It made me sad just to know that things like that are still going on in our community,” Ms Kemp said. “It’s very sad that innocent persons end up dying for guilty persons.”

 Andrea Johnson-Thompson, who has attended the support group for 17 months, described her struggle with the loss of her son, Andre, who died from a fentanyl overdose on August 28, 2022 in the apartment next door to hers.

 “He wasn’t murdered with a gun or knife, but he was given a pill that had illicit fentanyl in it, and he died right next door to me in his apartment. I am unit 1, he was in unit 2,” she said.

 Reflecting on her journey through grief, she said, “This grieving journey, I don’t know how it would have looked if God would not have ordered my steps to connect with Dr Allen.”

 “The saying that time heals all wounds I never subscribed to that, I never believed it. Time doesn’t heal, time helps, it does not heal. The pain is so unbearable you cannot even put into words, not one moment of the day you do not feel the pain,” she said on Friday.

 In explaining that her son, who never used drugs, unknowingly took a pill laced with fentanyl, she said: “My son would never even take a panadol, he hated pills, he hated medicine. He wouldn’t even take a a panadol when he got his braces tighten so for me to live with the fact that my son died from a pill, its incomprehensible. I do not understand this, I do not get it.”

 Many participants expressed frustration with the justice system, questioning its effectiveness. “They took his life like he was nothing, and he meant the world to me,” one mother said.

 Another resident described the system as “contradictory” and criticised what they viewed as a lack of compassion from authorities.

 Dr Eric Fox, presenting on Violence: The Lack of Power, discussed the subconscious roots of violence and explained that unresolved trauma often drives violent behaviour.

 “Ninety per cent of our actions come from the subconscious mind,” Dr Fox said, adding that feelings of powerlessness frequently fuel acts of violence.

 Dr Fox also highlighted the growing trend of gang affiliations among younger children, noting that even primary school students are increasingly aligning with gangs. “They have two different personas — one for family life and another for criminal activity,” he said.

 As the meeting closed, participants were encouraged to hold onto memories of their lost loved ones and pursue personal healing. The Fox Hill Family Group meets every Friday at 1pm at the Fox Hill Community Centre.