THE shooting death of Highway 2000 labourer Christopher Marshall on Wednesday has left his colleagues in fear and his grief-stricken mother pondering the motive behind the killing.

“Mi nuh feel safe; ah true wi want di likkle one cent why mi come yah. None a wi no feel safe, gunman dem pass through and kill people. A pack mi soon pack up yah now,” one worker, who declined to give his name out of fear, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

His sentiments were echoed by several of his colleagues who, too, expressed a desire to keep their identities secret.

“Christopher a good bwoy; wi feel sad. Mi nuh feel safe because anything can happen,” one of the labourers said.

According to the police, 29-year-old Marshall — who hails from the town of Linstead in St Catherine — was a part of a 20-man team constructing a stone wall on a section of the North South leg of the highway that runs through the historic town. He was reportedly sitting on a median in the roadway, when the sounds of gunshots were heard. It was later discovered that he had gunshot wounds to the upper body and was taken to hospital where he was declared dead.

Yesterday, a colleague told the Observer that, in an effort to meet the March 9 deadline for the completion of the stone wall, Marshall was called back to work after his shift finished at 8:00 pm on Monday.

“Wi nuh normally work a night, but because the highway was suppose to open on Wednesday dem call him back. On a regular day, we finish work 6:00 pm. Unfortunately the incident occurred,” the colleague related.

Meanwhile, Marshall’s mother Patricia Marshall said that she is trying to figure out why her son was murdered.

“I don’t know of him and anybody having anything, so mi nuh know why dem kill him. All now mi cyaan believe seh Chris dead. In life you haffi look out fi everything, but mi never believe seh him life would have gone like that,” she said.

She said that Marshall was her fifth of eight children and could have been alive today had he not been called back to work.

In addition, she said that death had been stalking her family since 2014.

“In 2014 mi bury mi mother. Last year him father died, when mi a plan candlelight for my husband, blood vessel burst inna mi husband sister head and now a Chris,” she related,

She said that her son was a jovial and kind person.

“Monday morning was the last time I saw him going to work about 6:00 am. Chris is a kind person, if yuh ask him fi anything him give you. If him nuh have all of it, him still a give you,” she said.