The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES of a 37-year-old father gunned down early Tuesday morning said they are struggling to understand his killing, describing him as a peaceful man who “did not cause trouble” and had no known enemies.

Archie “AJ” Thompson was shot shortly after 3am on Abraham Street off Kemp Road, according to police.

Police said the victim contacted authorities himself and reported that he had been shot. Officers responded and found him suffering from gunshot injuries to the body.

Investigators said the man had been asleep in house when he heard gunshots and later realised he had been shot. He was unable to provide officers with information about the assailant or assailants.

Emergency medical personnel transported him to hospital, where he later died.

No motive has been disclosed.

Family members said the killing has left them searching for answers, noting that he had been with them just hours before his death.

“It is still a mystery to me how it happened and why it happened,” said his brother Devon Thompson, 48. “AJ was a good person. I still don't like the fact that happened, how it happened, when it happened. I would like to know who did it and if I was there'd I'd have tried to avoid it happening.”

Devon said his brother was a hardworking man and the father of an 11-year-old daughter.

“I have to make sure for her too now I have to look out for her,” he said, adding that he has just started a new job in landscaping and was staying out of problems. “It’s just a crime that no one saw anything and it hurts my heart. That's my last little brother. We have the same mummy.”

Levante Thompson, 24, the victim’s cousin, said Thompson, also known as “Pello”, lived a quiet and routine life.

“We chilled down the road everyday on the porch, all of us come after work when we get off, everyone come home and we chill until night and time to go to bed,” he said. “Anything that was done in the dark comes to light, so just know that there will be justice.”

He said he did not know Thompson to have any enemies.

“It's crazy, because how it went, it had to been something with a vengeance or personal vendetta,” he said. “I only can say someone jealous, so I don't even know.”

Another cousin, Peaches Thompson, 26, said Thompson had recently been trying to improve his life, especially as a father.

“He was telling me he wanted to be a better father,” she said. “He wanted to do better for his daughter.”

She said they spent time together daily.

“If you see me, you'd see him,” she said. “I don't like to go walking by myself, so I'd call him say 'Pel, let's go ride', he don't wanna go but he'd say let's go cuz, I wanna buy a beer. Anywhere I tell him let's go, we going. If I wanna go out in the night, I won't go without a man because I feel like they're my protection. He'd say 'I ain't feeling it tonight’ and I'd say ’Please, man, please’. When I come back, he waiting on me to get ready.”

Peaches said the family is close-knit and the loss has been devastating. Thompson was expected to celebrate his 38th birthday in October.

“Pel was so loving and so kind, and I ain't like how they take him,” she said. “I'm still shock to be honest.”