‘HE WAS SUCH A NICE LITTLE BABY’ - Two-year-old shot and killed in Trelawny

For most of Sunday, two-year-old Adrian Campbell, affectionately called 'Chubby', was his usual playful self as he passed time between his mother, his stepfather, and an elderly female family friend, who all admired his passion for eating, and playing.

However, the happiness of the playful child, who resided in Mack Hill district in Clark's Town, Trelawny, ended abruptly, shortly after 7:30 p.m., when a relative with whom his stepfather, Ricardo Brown, had an ongoing dispute, opened gunfire on the car in which he was sitting, killing the child on the spot.

"He was one pretty little baby, all the while him come wid mi," said Moreen Gooden, the family friend. "Him fat and him love food, mi call him fat man. If him deh eat anything, and if mi seh fat man, beg you some, him woulda give me."

While the deceased child's mother, who is pregnant, went into shock on witnessing the killing of her beloved child and had to be hospitalised, Brown, who had a strong bond with little Adrian, was a distraught man when THE STAR visited him at his home yesterday.

"Him [Adrian] always happy," said a weeping Brown. "Whenever mi see him, him always a run up and dung, him is a loving little boy, one in a million."

Brown said that the child was very close to his grandaunt, as whenever they needed someone to look after him when he and the child's mother were going out, she would gladly keep him, as she enjoyed his jovial ways and his love of food.

"He was such a nice little baby, loving little baby," said Gooden, as tears rolled down her face yesterday.

Althea Buckle, the principal of the congregation of Yahweh Basic School, where young Adrian was a student, said he was a very interesting child.

"Adrian was a very energetic child, was very vibrant, once he entered the school everyone would call out 'Chubby, Chubby, Chubby', and he had a pleasing personality, and he was always smiling," said Buckle. "He loved to dance, once you start singing songs in devotion, oh my God, he would take over the devotion with his little bouncing dance. I miss him so much.

"I could not even sleep last night [Sunday] because I keep on remembering Adrian. He would be at school now and I would be taking him and the other children on the outside to practise for sports," added Buckle.

According to police reports, about 7:30 p.m., Adrian, his mother, and Brown went to purchase ice cream at a shop in Mack Hill. While there, they were approached by a man with whom Brown had a dispute. The man reportedly pulled a handgun and opened fire. Adrian, who was sitting in the rear seat of the car, was hit.

"The shooter was picked up during an operation carried out in Duncans, Trelawny, after the incident, a senior police officer told THE STAR yesterday.