The Kingston West Police Division says it is searching for the third suspect in last Monday’s fatal shooting of 33-year-old Nordel Parkes in Denham Town.

The division reported that about 11:45 am, Parkes was sitting on Blunt Street when three armed men approached and opened fire hitting him several times. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Head of the Kingston West Police Division Superintendent Howard Chambers told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the two suspects currently in custody in will be charged this week.

Meanwhile, Parkes’ mother, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, defended her son’s innocence and denied that he was part of a gang.

“Mi son innocent; mi child no mek no trouble. You can go anywhere and ask bout my child; mi nuh have no bad pickney,” the mother of seven said as she called a neighbour to confirm her son’s antecedents.

The distraught mother told the Observer that since her son’s death she has been living in fear, claiming she is familiar with the alleged killers.

“Mi cyaa walk which part mi a go… Him all inna market a wait pon mi. Him a map out if him see mi a come a market,” she said.

Referring to the suspect, the woman claimed that he too is a victim of violence, as “them kill him brother and him father”.

One of Parkes’ younger siblings who watched helplessly as his brother took his last breath agreed with his mother that the deceased was not involved in the recent spate of killings in West Kingston.

One of Parkes’ close friends, Crystal Bailey, struggled to fathom why someone would want to kill Parkes.

“He was a good friend. Never a sad moment, him always keep you happy. Nordel come een like a brother from another mother. When you say nice friend, he was a friend. A friend in need is a friend in deed, that is Nordel,” Bailey said.

She added: “Nobody nuh have nothing bad fi say ’bout him ’cause he wasn’t a bad person. If dem can kill Nordel Parkes, dem can kill anyone. It come in like is a baby dem kill, or a girl. We tired a it; dem need fi stop dem foolishness. Wi tired of it!”

— Racquel Porter