Drug Abuse Council manager murdered
The body of Clifford Weir, the National Council on Drug Abuse’s (NCDA’s) central regional manager, was found yesterday morning with a bullet wound to the back of the head along a secluded road in Clarendon.
The police are yet to establish a motive for the murder while family and friends are at a loss as to why anyone would want to kill Weir, 38, a man who they say “was always helping people”.
Weir’s body was discovered at about 7:00 am along a heavily vegetated section of Sevens Road, in Sevens Woods, which the police say is a popular hangout for lovers. The body was lying face-up beside his black Mitsubishi Chariot motor car, the police said, adding that they were alerted to the crime scene by residents who reported hearing a gunshot on Thursday night at around 10:00 o’clock.
Weir’s laptop computer, his cellular phone and other items were still in his vehicle, the police and family members told the Observer.
“He is a genuine person who tries to reach the worst of people to make the best out of them,” said a distraught Evelyn Thompson, Weir’s stepmother. “I want to know how [the killers] feel knowing that he died leaving his six children.”
Karlene Gordon, the mother of one of Weir’s children, said: “He is a nice and jovial person. You never see him and he’s not smiling. I don’t know why anyone would want to kill him. He gets along well with everybody. It’s hard, you know.”
Weir’s common law-wife, Gay Morgan, said when he did not arrive home the last thing she expected was a call to say that he was murdered.
“He was always willing to help people. No matter what time you call him, even if he’s tired, he will help you,” said Morgan, who also has a child with Weir.
As family members and friends huddled outside the May Pen Police Station consoling each other all they could do was speculate as to why Weir, who would have turned 39 on April 10, was killed.
As central manager for the NCDA, Weir was responsible for all the programmes the agency operated out of the parishes of St Elizabeth, Clarendon, Manchester, St Catherine and some parts of St Ann.
Fellow NCDA manager Oniel Smith said that Weir loved young people and that everything that he did was for the benefit of them.
“He’s somebody who will give his entire salary to help somebody in need; that’s why we can’t understand why this happened to him,” said Smith. “Clifford touched everybody’s life in a positive way. You can’t be around him for too long and be the same. There are a number of persons out there who turned their lives around and stop using drugs because of Clifford. He going to be missed at the agency. Clifford is irreplaceable.”