Heartbreak as teen dad drowns in Portland

First-time mother 19-year old Daveilla Walker has been left to raise her seven-month-old son alone, after her babyfather, Derrick Wilson, also 19, met an unexpected death on Saturday.

The teen dad drowned in the Rio Grande in Portland on Saturday after venturing out of his Kingston home for a day out with friends.

Reports from the Mill Bank Police are that about 1:10 p.m., Wilson was among a group of persons who went to the river to swim. He allegedly encountered difficulties and had to be pulled from the water. He died while being treated at hospital.

"Our first child died in June last year," a grieving Walker told THE STAR. "It was a stillbirth, so he was so excited for this child, and he was always there for him."

"From the day the baby born it was just him and the baby, because the first week after I gave birth, I was in the hospital after doing surgery and he kept the baby all that time."

PRIORITY

Walker said that Wilson, who lived in Waterhouse, took his role as father seriously, and made it a priority to provide for his child from the little he earned as a bus conductor.

"Even when I come out of the hospital I wasn't so strong, and he said I should stay with my mother so she can take care of me. He cared for our child, and after we move in together, him do everything for us - cook, clean, work, buy diapers for the baby, and tried his best to make us happy," Walker detailed.

"Every evening after work, me, him and our baby spend time together, so I know the baby must be wondering where is daddy; and Derrick just gone like that."

The young mother said that she was at work on Sunday when she found out that he died.

"While at work, me get a call from him after 2 o'clock and I ignored it, because I can't answer [the] phone at work, but if I had known that would have been the last call, I would call back right away," she said.

"When I finally get a chance to call back, different people a answer him phone and a tell me say him drown ... . Me drop down! A me co-worker them have to take me up and call my mommy to come for me. All now me can't sleep or eat, me just can't understand how him just gone."

Wilson's mother told THE STAR that she was too grief-stricken to speak about the sudden loss of her son.