The Graham family in the small, quiet community of Essex in St Mary has had enough of death.

Their only wish now is that Ewan Graham is allowed to peacefully lay to rest her daughter, 21-year-old D’Johnnay Graham, who was shot dead just over a week ago. Her cop boyfriend, who was wounded in that incident, is the suspected shooter.

The family’s frustration with bloodshed has its foundation in The Grim Reaper’s ruthless wielding of his scythe in the community last Thursday night as the family held a candlelight vigil for the slain woman.

Two people — 27-year-old Shaquille Harris, also known as Nick or Big Red; and Tiffany Douse, also known as Nikki — were shot dead at the vigil; while 57-year-old Arthneil Douglas, a cousin of D’Johnnay, was found dead at his house, metres away from the Graham family home, early the following morning.

Residents told the Jamaica Observer that Douglas, who was at the vigil, had a foreboding and left. D’Johnnay’s killing had hit him very hard.

“Him talk about it every day, as he said she didn’t deserve to die like that,” one woman said, adding that Douglas had health issues.

“Him did sick with him heart and him had acid reflux, because when he got to his yard he started to vomit and him just tell him daughter to go inside and don’t come out,” the resident told the Sunday Observer.

However, his body was found on the verandah early Friday morning.

The police are investigating, but so far they do not suspect any foul play.

On Friday, when the Sunday Observer visited the community, the tension in the air was palpable. Most residents were mum about the attack on the vigil.

“If I tell you what really happened last night I would be lying,” Ewan said.

“I just want to go lie down, as this I can’t manage. Look at the food, see it there, it didn’t even start to share. I have to be calling people now to come and get the food. If you look around the back, all the liquor is still there,” Ewan said, shaking her head in disbelief as she showed the Sunday Observer pots of cooked rice and peas and soup, as well as containers with seasoned meats. A pile of roasted and unroasted breadfruit remained in the open, untouched.

The shaken mother said that she had slipped on the step to her house on Thursday morning and had to be helped inside where she spent most of the day.

“When everything happened I was in my bed,” she said, grief evident in her voice.

A male resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was standing near where the shooting took place.

“Jah know, me stand right here, then I hear the gunshot and everybody start running and just confusion. Mi nuh know if the killer tek bush or drive off, because down here full a people,” he said.

The man alleged that tension was high in the community due to talk that Harris had taken D’Johnnay’s cop boyfriend to hospital after the shooting incident in which she was killed.

“Down here start get tense and things as Big Red come in, and nuff grumbling start,” he said.

A close friend of Douse — the woman who was shot dead at the vigil — said she was advised by a family member not to attend the event.

Both Harris, a former soldier, and Douse lived in John Crow Spring, a community on the border of St Mary and St Catherine.

A friend of Harris in that community is fuming at an accusation that the former soldier was a part of a conspiracy that led to D’Johnnay’s killing.

“Him nuh have nothing to do with it, I want them to leave him out of this passa passa — all a who a talk,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

He said he had known Harris for most of his life and can proudly say he was a young man with standards.

“Big Red a good youth, jovial, more a peacemaker,” he said.

Like others in the John Crow Spring community, he is in shock at the shooting at the vigil.

Seasoned meats remain in containers after the candlelight vigil was cut short following a double murder on Thursday night.