Furniture maker murdered in downtown Kingston

Sunday morning saw 56-year-old Gary Parkes making several trips along Orange Street in downtown Kingston with his handcart. The furniture maker was transporting sheets of old zinc and other materials to rebuild his workshop that was gutted by fire last year. His plans, however, were shattered after his life was cut short by heartless criminals who shot him metres from his house. The attack took place about 11 a.m.

Needless to say, his family has been left devasted.

"All of us were inside and we heard the explosions, but it didn't sound like shots ... dem sound like board. But mi sister seh it sound like shot. We come outside and mi sister a look but she couldn't see the person because him lay down in the gutter, and it full a grass. When we go down there we confirmed say a mi father lay down inna di gutter. It hurt bad," a daughter of the deceased told THE STAR.

A policeman on the scene said that Parkes was attacked by two men travelling on foot.

Parkes' common-law wife was a picture of grief as she watched the police cordoned off the crime scene. The laden handcart that the deceased was pushing could be seen next to a pair of slippers that he was wearing.

"A bed him make. He is a furniture maker and is di zinc dem him go pick up down there suh enuh," common-law wife said.

One of Parke's daughters described him as a devoted father and a dedicated family man.

"Everyone knows him. He is a very jovial and hard-working person, and him is not someone contentious. He was just a people person. He had a shop for years on the street but it burn down last December so he was in the process of making one. Him make bed in the yard but is a tenement yard we live in, suh yuh know everyone want them space. He was trying to build another shop across the street in an open land. From morning him back and forth a carry the material for the shop a try build it and him dead," she said.