A single bullet to the head was how Bashington “Chen Chen” Douglas met his end near, midnight Sunday, in the quiet Clarendon district of Pennants, to which he brought unsolicited fame and which set the stage for the Crawle drama that all but ended the career of a colourful Jamaican supercop.

At 11.50 pm on Mother’s Day, in the very month that brought him to prominence, residents were jolted from their slumber by a loud explosion that turned out to be from the weapon that snuffed out the life of a man who, while he lived, existed under the shadow of the gun.

When police responded to the call of the residents, they found the bleeding, lifeless body of Douglas with a bullet to the head at the rented house in which he spent his final days, after the glare of publicity from the celebrated Crawle case that resulted in the disbandment of the Crime Management Unit (CMU) and removal from front-line duties of its outspoken and controversial head, Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams.

Villagers immediately began to speculate about who killed “Chen Chen”, some saying that he had been forewarned not to sleep with his door open. Some theorised that he may have been killed by someone who knew his habits.

Douglas was reporting, on condition of a bail bond, to the Chapleton police for a murder for which he was charged, Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) liaison officer Constable Odale Mulgrave told the Observer.

But police will breathe a sigh of relief that they are not being blamed this time.

“Me tired fi tell him fi shut him door when him gone sleep,” said a resident who, like everyone else, did not want to be identified. “Many times him all gone a road with him door left open. You caan tell me seh a nuh somebody whe know de man ways kill him, because a caan de police because dem know which part fe find him already,” the resident said.

“We have not yet determined the motive for this murder, and there are no suspects named at this time in connection with the shooting,” said Mulgrave.

Several residents gathered outside the house where Douglas was killed, each telling their encounter and knowledge of the man, when the Observer visited.

“A Sunday last week me and him talk, and him tell me se him start work pon de road down by Four Paths. Right yah now me caan tell you why dem kill him,” said his sister, who also asked not to be named.

Douglas’ sister said he had moved to Pennants district last year and had been told several times to leave the area by concerned relatives and friends. She declined to say why.

In 1967, Bashington Douglas was born to poor parents in the depressed community of Homestead, off the Old Harbour Road near Spanish Town in St Catherine. Calvin and Dotty Douglas were poor; he, a labourer taking odd jobs, she, a seamstress working for others for small change.

In the mid-1970s, many persons allied to the JLP fled to Spanish Town and its environs. Between 1967, 1983 and 1989, the evolution of Central St Catherine from years of gerrymandering and omissions in social engineering resulted in the JLP garrison constituency that exists today.

The fourth of seven children, three girls came before him and three after, Douglas once told a newspaper columnist: “Me used to go Macauley school, mi nuh know if a all-age or wha.”

He left school at around 14 and, at that age, all his formal education ceased. “Life used to rough fi me and mi sister dem. Mi father used to work at a cane farm an mi mother get sewing work sometime.”

In 1980, when Kingston and Spanish Town erupted in an orgy of violence in the many months leading up to the general elections of October that year, a young “Chen Chen” got his first taste of violence. Later police would accuse him of several murders and shootings.

But to his sister and some residents, Douglas was apparently not the thug at the centre of the news for almost a year, starting in May 2003 when the Crawle incident exploded, or before that when he was accused of living a life of crime in the St Catherine badlands.

“Chen Chen was very quiet and nice. Me nuh know what fi say right now,” she said.

“Chen was a very generous man. Him really nuh deserve fe get him head lick off like dat,” a resident said.

Another of Douglas’ sisters said now that someone had managed to kill her brother, the act had left his 15-year-old son fatherless.

“Him likkle son nuh have no fadda now. See it deh, dem kill him just like dat,” she remarked.

Douglas shot to national prominence when the Adams-led CMU went to Crawle in search of him. Police said Douglas was running an extortion racket targeting the Australian-owned AUSJAM gold mine in Pennants.

As they approached a house in which they believed he was holed up, they were met by gunfire. They shot back and four people were killed. Among the four were two women; one of them Douglas’ girlfriend, Angella Richards. They found two guns, said the police story.

But residents contradicted the police’s version, alleging that the four were killed in cold blood.

The flamboyant Adams and five initially, then three other policemen, were jointly charged with the murder of the four, giving rise to the Crawle trial that stretched to involve Britain’s Scotand Yard. In the end, Adams and his men were acquitted.

Seeing destiny in Douglas’ death, one resident remarked: “Is pon de seventh a May dem kill him woman. And see it deh now, him come meet fi him death seven days later, to the date. Something wrong, man.”