8-y-o shot dead while watching football

Screams of grief and agony filled the air in Howells Content, York Town, Clarendon, yesterday after eight-year-old Xavier Phillips was shot dead by gunmen.

Little Xavier, known affectionately as 'Bojo', was shot and killed as he sat on a grave watching a game of football. Reports from the Four Paths police are that about 7:40 a.m., citizens were at a local playing field when a Toyota motor car approached, and two men alighted and opened fire at the group before escaping.

The police were summoned and on their arrival, Xavier and two men were seen with multiple gunshot wounds. They were taken to hospital, where Xavier was pronounced dead. One man has since been released and the other admitted in serious condition.

"No more Bojo! A me guh fe Bojo a country. Me nuh come see no more Bojo! Me see Bojo lie dung! Jesus Christ!", wept Eva Brown, Xavier's maternal grandmother. Xavier's mom, Britni Berry, was speechless even as relatives tried to console her. The family shared that Xavier was an intelligent child with an inquisitive mind who had a knack for learning.

Paternal relatives

Brown said she went to retrieve the child who had been staying with paternal relatives last week. She said that she left Xavier in bed yesterday morning while she went to carry out cleaning duties at her church nearby. On her way back home, she said she was greeted with the tragic news that he had been shot.

"Me say 'No! A cyaa me grandson 'cause me lef him ina bed a sleep'," cried the grief-stricken Brown. Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison has described the killing as careless and evil. "An eight-year-old just sitting watching a game of football - there's no harm in that - and he was killed," she said, adding that she hoped that the police will swiftly apprehend the killers.