Mickesha Walters was in tears yesterday as she related how her four-year-old stepson tried to get a response from his father, Nathaniel Forbes, who lay dead on Beach Road in Bull Bay, St Andrew, on Tuesday afternoon, the victim of a gunman’s bullets.

“The little one run go to him father and seh, ‘Daddy, get up, Daddy, get up’,” Walters — the mother for four of Forbes’ seven children — told the Jamaica Observer, pointing out that the 36-year-old was shot multiple times, about 5:15 pm, by the gunman who jogged away after committing the murder.

“When the car gone wid him to hospital, dem literally a run go outta road saying dem a go look fi dem father. A somebody see dem and draw dem back,” Walters said, adding the children have been left traumatised and in need of counselling.

Walters could not give a motive for Forbes’ murder, but said that he was no bad man or killer.

Her claim was supported by residents who described him as a peacemaker in the area.

Forbes, also known as Beenie Man, was one of at least four people murdered in Bull Bay over the past week.

Superintendent Tomilee Chambers, who heads the East Kingston Police Division, told the Observer yesterday that a gang which has been plaguing the area has been embroiled in a deadly internal conflict. The feuding has extended beyond Bull Bay, with the murder of a man in downtown Kingston who was a resident of Bull Bay.

“Friday alone, you would have had three persons from the Bull Bay space being killed. One was killed in the Kingston Central space and two in our space. Tuesday, now, a man just walked up and shot this other guy, who they said switched allegiance. This was on Beach Road. We are trying our best to contain what is going on there,” said Superintendent Chambers.

He said another murder was committed Wednesday about 9:00 am. The victim was a man who was walking on Greenvale Road when he was shot dead by gunmen.

Yesterday, residents told the Observer that Forbes may have been killed because he refused to choose sides in the gang conflict. They also said that for almost four years there had been periodic violent conflict in the area.

An elderly man shared that the thugs were fighting “over nothing sensible” and described them as a “generation of vipers”. He, too, described Forbes as a peacemaker.

According to Walters, Forbes was the main figure in the community who everyone would turn to for a peaceful settlement of any dispute. She said many people labelled him a don, but that, she insisted, was not so.

She explained that he was always willing to use his influence for the betterment of Beach Road residents, oftentimes encouraging people to work for a living and not engage in criminal activities.

“Him was di man weh a hold the place and dem kill him leave him youth dem. A him mek whole heap a bad things nuh happen. Him quick fi seh, ‘Leggo dat!’ I don’t know him as any don, him was just a person who show respect, so people give him back respect. Him nah go do anything fi go prison,” Walters said.

“A him pave off di whole a di lane. Di gully did bruk weh and the road did damage. He has friends from Cement Company who would patronise him and would deliver cement for them to pave the road, without any money and no help from politicians. Dem man deh nuh support extortion. Yuh couldn’t go inna nobody house and do certain things, and he did that without having to kill anybody,” she said, insisting that Forbes advocated peace and community building.