UPDATE: ‘Him a one a di best man in the community’, Frome residents remember bar shooting victim
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— The community of Frome in Westmoreland has been jolted by the shooting death of one of their own, 55-year-old Everol Rowe, a businessman who manufactured and sold brooms in his yard.
Rowe’s life was cut short on Wednesday shortly after 1:00 am when he and two other men were gunned down at a bar in the community. Four other victims remain hospitalised.
READ: Seven shot, three fatally, at Westmoreland bar
Rowe’s spouse Corrine Porter is struggling to come to grips with her new reality.
“Mi cyah manage, mi cyah manage. It rough miss, it’s rough,” a distraught Porter said as she held her head in a worrying manner.
Porter told Observer Online that Rowe and her had been together for three years and she knew him to be a hardworking man.
She is now left with unanswered questions of “why him?” and “could it be a case of wrong place,wrong time?”.
Porter said the government needs to focus more on the crime situation plaguing the country.
“More needs to be done to get down the crime rate,” Porter told Observer Online on Wednesday afternoon as she struggled to hold back tears.
The residents remembered Rowe as a “good man”.
“Mr Rowe is a good person. Him come to Frome, Ricketts River over 20 years, a one di best man in the community,” said one resident and the uncle of one of the injured men who is said to be in a serious condition at hospital.
“Is a talented man. Him do everything to make a dollar and to stay alive. I don’t know what happened but God knows,” the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, bemoaned.
He said the community was once quiet but things have changed as there are often flare-ups.
“Right now mi cut up. My nephew inside [got shot and injured and in hospital). He fix road everyday,” he said of his injured nephew.
Another man, age 48, is also said to be in serious condition as he was shot in the abdomen and neck.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) for Area 1 Clifford Chambers told Observer Online a short while ago that the incident was gang-related.
Among those shot are a bartender, labourer and a cashier who are all in their 20s.
— Kimberley Peddie
