WHEN Tia McKnight spoke with her father last Monday, she did not know that was the last conversation she would have had with him.

Fifty-one-year-old Marlon McKnight, otherwise called Japanese, of Content was shot dead last Wednesday at a bar in Discovery Bay, St Ann.

McKnight, a chef who operated a restaurant in Discovery Bay, was having a drink with friends at the time of his death.

Police report that a gunman walked up to McKnight, engaged him in a short conversation and then shot him in the face. The thug then left in a waiting motor vehicle.

“Be strong you will make it in life; just remain calm all when them fight against you,” the younger McKnight said, quoting words her father would say to her.

She described him as a hard-working man who always provided for his family.

“My daddy, my motivator, my strength, my shield, my protector — he is always on the go to make ends meet for his family. He was a jovial person, a friend, a father you could look up to,” she added.

She said her father was not a troublemaker, but one who would try to keep peace at all times.

“Even when people trouble him, he remained calm and move forward …he never deserved this death,” she told the Jamaica Observer North & East.

The memory of a caring father and husband has left McKnight’s family devastated even as they ask questions about his murder.

Doreth, McKnight’s wife, could not think of a reason anyone would want her husband dead.

“My husband was a very quiet, kind and loving person. He don’t give no trouble; he is a peaceful man,” she said.

“I don’t know what this is why I lose my husband like that; it shocking to everybody,” a distraught McKnight said.

She said she is even more shocked because the bar where her husband was killed was not a regular hangout spot for him.

“I don’t know what he was doing there. All now I can’t tell why they kill my husband,” she continued.

The couple had been married for 37 years and was operating the small restaurant for less than a year.

Customers, the woman said, are already missing the delicious meals served by McKnight, who many agreed was jovial.

One man who said he bought regularly from McKnight’s restaurant noted that it provided some of the tastiest meals in Discovery Bay.

The restaurant has remained closed since McKnight’s killing.