ONE of the heaviest burdens that could be heaped on a child has beset 16-year-old Christopher Rommany Jr.

His father, 40-year-old Christopher Rommany Sr, and very close friend and schoolmate, 16-year-old Demario Gibson, were killed by gunmen at a shop in Hayes New Town, Phase Two Housing Scheme in Clarendon on Tuesday night.

Another schoolmate and very close friend of Rommany Jr is battling for life in hospital after he, too, was shot and injured during the same incident.

Four other people who could not escape the bullets of the gunmen were hospitalised after also being shot and injured in the same incident.

Tuesday night’s deadly event has left Rommany Jr in despair, especially knowing that he lifted his beloved father’s motionless body and placed it in a taxi destined for hospital.

When the Jamaica Observer visited Rommany Jr’s home on Wednesday, he told the news team that short moments before hearing explosions erupt in the air, he had collected the keys to his father’s house to fetch his dinner. It was while he was enjoying a dish of dumplings and ackee that the terrible news was delivered to him.

“The last thing he said to me was that food round a di yard. Him gimmi di key and seh ‘Go eat.’ Mi inna di house a eat and den mi hear di shot dem. Somebody run come tell mi seh mi father get shot. Mi lock di door and go round deh a ask fi him. Nobody never answer, but when mi look inna di shop, mi see him. A me alone did affi put him inna di car. I don’t know where I got the strength from but I would do anything for my daddy,” the Bustamante High School student told the Observer.

His mother, Ingrid Cooper, asked him to locate a small collection of photographs from inside his father’s house and, as he stood on the verandah looking at the pictures of his dad, the boy who had initially put on a on a brave face broke down in tears. Cooper had to hug and console her son.

Cooper, too, found it hard to hold back her emotions. She expressed concern that the tragedy could disrupt her son’s learning and, as if trying to piece together a puzzle, she asked God why she had to lose the fathers of two of her children by the gun.

“Why me Lord, why me? Why did history have to repeat itself? Why me have to have two fatherless children by the gun? One was killed by the police because of mistaken identity and one by gunmen. How is my son going to cope? How is he going to focus at school next month?”

She said that Rommany Sr, who was affectionately called Lucky, was an electrician and construction worker who spent some time operating a taxi before exploring those professions.

“We parted about five years now but when me and him did live, him never mek me hungry. Mi have other kids weh nuh belong to him and him never mek dem want anything. He died leaving four children. Our son would move mountains for his daddy. He lives with me but if him nuh see him father for five seconds, him nuh eat and him nuh comfortable. Before him go a school him affi see him father. Before him come a him bed him affi see him father. Him father teach him fi drive from him a two year old. I remember one day him drive out di car and seh ‘Daddy look, mi a drive.’ He was about three-years-old,” Cooper reminisced.

When the Observer visited the family members of 16-year-old Demario “Puss Man” Gibson, who was killed in the incident, bewilderment was written across their faces.

Tears ran down the face of one of his sisters as she spoke of how Gibson was killed while she celebrated her birthday on Tuesday.

In the meantime, head of the Clarendon Police Division, Senior Superintendent Glenford Miller said around 8:45 pm on Tuesday people were at a shop when a motor vehicle drove up. Two men alighted and opened gunfire at the people, some of whom were playing dominoes. Initially, six people were reported to have been shot but two succumbed to injuries. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning another man reported that he received gunshot wounds.

“It is a total of seven people who were shot, two fatally. We cannot definitively speak to what was the cause of this murder; investigation is currently underway. We are trying to ascertain what we can from the location. We are imploring citizens who know anything to come forward and partner with the police so we can solve this crime. The area is not a hot spot for violent crimes; this is not one of the spaces we have on our radar within the division.”

Sean Barnswell, People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Hayes Division, said Tuesday that he will be approaching grief counsellors to have them visit the relatives and residents to comfort them.

He added: “I must say condolences to the family of the deceased. One of the deceased I know personally, a very jovial person who got along well with the community. Residents are distraught and frightened. It is a really unfortunate situation.”