When Nadine Thompson was a child, her twin died and she said her older brother Tyrone Thompson, much to her solace, assumed the role as her twin brother.

Tyrone was two years older, and they shared a unique bond — being the only two among their six siblings who shared the same mother and father.

But since March 3, she has been left in agony after 26-year-old Tyrone was chopped to death in their community of Shrewsbury District in Portland.

“Me and my brother have a bond. Dem tek him from mi. I don’t remember my brother being a warmonger. He is always jovial and smiling and laughing. He is always running jokes. It really shake me up bad. I don’t know when I am going to get over this. I am just living with the memory because mi nah go see him again. Each day mi affi cry, each night mi affi cry. It really hard. It was eight of us as siblings and we are the only ones with the same mom and same dad,” Nadine told the Jamaica Observer last Tuesday.

“My dad just a bawl straight because he was my father’s only son. My mother is not talking and hardly eating because she is shocked. Mi faint three times. There is a picture, and I can’t look at it. Mi beg dem fi nuh send it to mi phone. Mi maybe just catch heart attack and dead.”

Nadine, a vendor, said she ran away from her goods after hearing the news of her brother’s passing.

“From my brother died, mi cyaa do nothing. Mi spend $25,000 buy load and when I got the news, I was so shocked that I run leff everything. Every single thing. And from that, I don’t make back a dime. I have my two children to take care of and I just can’t make any money. It rough. It really shocking. Mi cyaa understand. It come like mi deh ina one dream world right now and mi nuh wake up,” she lamented.

“I took him as my twin. We were close. I took Poochie man as my twin brother. Dem tek him from mi. If you a chop him, chop him somewhere weh we can carry him go doctor. But yuh almost chop off him head!”

Tyrone, also known as ”Poochie Man”, was a mason whom residents told the Sunday Observer was highly respected, even by elders because of his resourcefulness.

“Him make coffin, him weld, him fix gate, him fix everything. He is a hard-working yute,” an elderly man said.

Reports are that about 2:00 am on March 3, Tyrone was at a party at Fruitful Vale District when an argument developed between him and Carvel Blackett, otherwise called Adda, of Binns Lane in Shrewsbury District.

Police said that Thompson left the party for home and on his way was allegedly met and attacked by Blackett, who reportedly chopped him to death with a machete. The police urged Blackett to surrender himself as he was being sought for questioning.

On Tuesday, March 8, Blackett was arrested and charged with murder.

When the Sunday Observer visited the community on Tuesday, residents said the event was not a party, but instead, a candlelight for a woman who had recently passed away in the community. The residents also claimed that Tyrone and Blackett were good friends.

“The two of them are my friends. A good yute dem. So, this just crazy to me. I can’t believe it all now. Dem a friend! I don’t know what happened. I cyaa believe friend can do that to friend,” a man said.

Nadine told the Sunday Observer that she is just as baffled.

“My brother cook and give the guy food Monday, him fix him bike for him Wednesday and that happen the Thursday morning. Mi cyaa understand. Dem never have a friction, dem never have a war,” she said.

Verone Crooks, Tyrone’s aunt, has a shop in the community. She told the Sunday Observer that he was with her for a majority of the night before she learned that he died.

“We are close. Even to the night of his death he was right here with me. Right here. He’s just a nice person. When you see him, you see him with a smile. And there’s nothing you ask him to do and he said no. If him even nuh have the time, him will seh ‘alright aunty, I will try.’ He would be the first person to come and wake you in the morning. That’s the type of person he is,” she said emotionally.

“It nuh really easy. It’s really hard to cope with it. He wasn’t the type of person who make war, and fi know that his own friend do it, rough.”

Crooks recalled: “A lady died and it was her candlelight. He and three friends were on the road drinking and when their chaser was finished, they came into the shop to buy more.”

She said about 1:30 am, she realised he had left and was wondering where to, because he seemed to have been drunk.

“About 2 o’ clock, my phone ring and mi sister seh ‘Poochie Man get chop up.’ I told them rush with him go hospital and she was saying no vehicle nuh want to carry him. So, I am saying maybe because him a bleed, so get a open back van, spread piece of tarpaulin and put him in there. She called back after three and said he’s still there. I believed it was just a minor chop and him a wait until daylight fi go stitch it up,” Crooks said.

But unfortunately, she learned the gravity of the situation when she heard someone crying out loudly about 5:00 am.

“The person a cry and a seh Poochie dead. That’s how we rushed to the house and see him lie down on the ground, and police was there too. My sister never tell me seh him dead. I didn’t know it was so serious,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Crooks said her sister is still reeling from the loss.

“It hard because every minute she cry. But she is trying.”