This is the eight in a weekly series looking at how the relatives of victims of crime have been coping with their loss. The series, entitled ‘Victims’, will hopefully point the state in the direction of those in need of emotional assistance and help prod people with information on these heinous acts to share them with the authorities.

CAREEN Cooper is still shaken three years after the brazen daylight murder of her younger brother, Marcel, in the usually peaceful parish capital of Port Antonio in Portland.

The grieving woman only agreed to share her story if her photograph was not taken.

On the evening of March 11, 2006, three armed men pounced upon Marcel Cooper on the steps of a bar at Hall’s Avenue in the Free School area of Port Antonio and shot him in full view of dozens of persons. The shooting was the result of a long-standing dispute between the man who now lay bleeding to death on the shop piazza and one of his attackers whom he had previously wounded.

A year after Marcel Cooper’s death, Leon Pinnock, also called ‘Papa’, was held by police in the town and charged with murder. Police reported that Pinnock was seen threatening a man with a firearm not far from the spot where he was accused of killing Marcel Cooper.

In December, Pinnock was sentenced to 30 years for the murder and illegal possession of a firearm, but one of the men who accompanied Pinnock is still at large. The other was reportedly killed by police during a failed robbery attempt in East Kingston in 2006.

“I am still afraid. People are still out there and I don’t know what they will do,” a fearful Cooper said, as she explained why she did not want to photographed.

But despite the brutality of the crime and the pain it has caused for Marcel Cooper’s 84-year-old father, two sons, five sisters and two brothers, his sister says she does not want his killer to be put to death.

“I am a Christian and, for me, I do not believe in the death penalty. Innocent people can get caught up in it,” Cooper said as a tear formed at the corner of her left eye.

But the fact that Pinnock has been found guilty and sent away for three decades, is little consolation to a woman who has lost her little brother to the monster of violence.

“It has been three years of pain and grief. It is not easy to deal with. He was someone who would stand up for right and did not deserve to have his life taken away like that,” Cooper told the Sunday Observer.

The pain is even more profound for Marcel Cooper’s father, Altimont, who has sunk into depression and has fallen ill since his son’s untimely demise.

“He has been very sickly since the incident and has not been himself since. It is hard to see how he is still suffering,” Cooper said.

The woman struggled to hold back tears as she related how the murder was taking a negative toll on her brother’s elder son, who was nine year-old when his father was gunned down.

“He has had to leave Port Antonio. The other one was only nine monthsold when his father was taken away from him,” Cooper added.

The incident sent shock waves through the town where tourists still walk freely and mingle with the locals without being harassed.

“Portland is a very peaceful and quiet parish, so, that murder shook up all of us for awhile. People couldn’t believe the boldness of the gunman dem,” Cooper said.

Residents of the town said a bartender who allegedly witnessed the crime was ordered by the gunmen to close the shop and leave the area. She has not been seen in Port Antonio since.

Meanwhile, residents say the gunmen were imported into the town from the Corporate Area.

“Him (Pinnock) have links inna certain garrison inna town and him bring him badman friend dem come intimidate the people dem with gun. Him get what him deserve,” one resident said.

Police statistics show that murders have been few in the parish of Portland, with the parish accounting for less than five per cent of the murders committed last year.