WESTERN BUREAU – An aspiring undertaker who wanted to revive his grandfather’s business, was robbed of the opportunity to realise his dream by criminals who shot him dead before his two young daughters in Go Piece Lane, Salt Spring.

A group of men invaded a yard occupied by Rodreka Kerr, 25, yesterday, where they shot him. Another person at the same location was shot and injured.

The Mount Salem Police identified the injured man as Jamahl Brown, 18, a labourer from Go Piece Lane, whom they said was in critical condition at hospital.

The police said Kerr’s was a reprisal killing, stemming from an argument earlier in the day between men from Go Piece and another community. Family members said Kerr was innocently caught up between the warring parties.

According to the police, at about 12:30 pm Tuesday, residents of the area heard several shots, following which they saw a group of men running from the community.

They found Brown with gunshot injuries in front of a house owned by Kerr, while he was found at the side of the house with wounds to the neck, chest and left foot.

Kerr’s sister Mayveta McCallum, told the Observer that her brother was hardworking and supportive of his two children who were left in his care by his wife who was away on the hotel work programme in the United States.

“I believe he was shot by mistake because my brother was not involved in any form of wrong-doing. He would go out and work because he wanted the best for his children,” McCallum said.

McCallum said hours before her brother’s death, he had taken his 2 year-old daughter Shaqana, to the hairdresser to have her hair twisted with the intention of taking her for a treat today.

She said Kerr’s grandfather, before he died, was the operator of Percy’s Funeral Home in Montego Bay, and Kerr had plans to reopen the business, but that dream was snuffed out by the gunmen.

His family and close friends now mourn the loss of someone they considered to be a model father.

The Mt Salem Police said they are following a number of leads in the case.