MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Ceejay Cunningham, the 2022 prime minister’s youth awardee for agriculture was shot and killed in Davyton, Manchester, reports say.

Councillor for the Bellefield Division, Mario Mitchell said Cunningham, 29, was an uplifting figure in the communities of Chantilly and Davyton.

Watch: Ceejay Cunningham has the ‘green thumb’

“This murder is very shocking and it is something that is quite shocking to the community and to myself as the councillor. He was a promising young man who is a farmer and a hardworking young man. He recently won the prime minister’s youth award for agriculture and he was an excellent farmer. He was having very successful ventures in agriculture in terms of strawberry farming and a number of other crops and things that he would have planted,” said Mitchell.

Preliminary reports suggest that Cunningham was gunned down on Friday evening in a section of Davyton.

Mitchell said he and other citizens in the area are in disbelief and are puzzled over the incident.

“This is quite shocking and is something I am trying to wrap my fingers around, because this is a young man that is hardworking, dedicated, committed. Somebody who is a contributing member to society in a positive way and a role model to the community, so I am trying to determine what is the reason behind such a gruesome act on a promising young man who has done nothing than to lift the community and put it in a positive light,” he said.

“It is something that we must get to the bottom of we must find out what exactly is happening in terms of that context,” added Mitchell.

Cunningham in a February 2023 article published in the Jamaica Observer shared that he had been exposed to farming as early as age 11, planting corn, sugar cane, and mint.

– Kasey Williams