Nightmare
ANDRE Stewart was destined to die on September 29, 2022.
His girlfriend, who requested anonymity, told the Jamaica Observer that hours before the 38-year-old ex-soldier was murdered on Sunlight Street in Arnett Gardens about 8:00 am, she had dreamt that he was shot by gunmen.
“I got a dream early in the morning seh him deh somewhere in the country and dem shoot him up. In the dream he held on to his chest and said, ‘Why dem waan kill mi and mi nuh do nobody nothing?’
“He then said, ‘Mi sorry seh mi come yah so come live. Mi nuh know why mi never stay a mi yard.’ I woke him up around 3:00 am and said, ‘Babes, mi get a dream and it a ride mi. Mi dream seh dem shoot you up.’ I told him not to come out of the house,” she related.
The girlfriend said that at sunrise Stewart phoned one of his three children to tell him that he loved him.
Minutes after 7:00 am he went outside to attempt to fix his motor vehicle, but couldn’t.
“He was constantly making calls to see if he can get a mechanic to look on it to find out what the problem was. Apparently he left out with the intention to see if he could find one nearby. Sections of the community are currently at war. It was while he was returning home [that] the car shut down in enemy territory,” she told the Observer, explaining that there is an ongoing conflict between men from different sections of the community.
“He came out and opened the bonnet and a look down in the engine to see if he could find out why it wasn’t throttling. While his head was down, they pounced on him. I was in the house when I heard rapid explosions. He left his phone so I couldn’t get to call him to see what the problem was. I went around to where I heard the explosions coming from and saw him lay down in front of the car. I collapsed same time. Two people took me up,” she recalled.
Sobbing occasionally as she spoke to the Observer, Stewart’s clearly traumatised girlfriend of eight years was convinced that he would still be alive had he heeded her plea for him to remain at their home in the section of the community known as Zimbabwe.
“Him shoulda just listen to mi when mi tell him don’t go anywhere, because of the bad dream. I also told him that inside of me was hurting, but he was stubborn,” she said.
One of Stewart’s neighbours, who explained that she enjoyed a close friendship with him, expressed fear that his murder could intensify the violence in the community. She remembered him as a fun person and said she was puzzled why he chose to drive on Sunlight Street, which is known as a no-go zone for Zimbabwe residents.
“In this community, one minute dem seh peace and the next minute dem seh war. This murder can lead up to bad things but I am trusting God that nothing like that will happen. I don’t know what he was doing over there. There is war going on, and none at all him shoulda deh over deh so. Andre was a good youth weh ever jovial. When you say anything to him, him always laugh,” the neighbour related.
“I don’t know why the devil told him to go over that side. I will always remember him as a man who can do every little thing. A inna di week him did a tile out him house; him not even finish it. You can call him about any little thing. A him normally pull down him car and fit it up back. Mi just sorry seh him life have to go like this; it is really heart-rending. May his soul rest in peace,” she added.
A shopkeeper in the community said Stewart wasn’t a bad person and recalled him greeting her by saying ‘Hi mommy’ every time he walked by her shop.
One of her customers described him as a genuine person.
“Him always a hail mi. Sometimes he would ask for a hug. I am sorry to know that somebody who I could talk to just went out like that,” she said.