Death stalks St Catherine family

As she held on to a bicycle for support just footsteps away from where her brother, Cedric Crooks, was killed along with her brother-in-law, Richard Manley, 47, on Saturday night, Doreen Palmer says she is convinced that her family is marked for death.

Her eyes welled up with tears as she outlined a list of family members who have died violently over the years.

"Right now mi strength-less because it just too much on we. A bare gunshot we family dead by. Is 10 of us as siblings and at least four a dem dead already. This is just too much," the Hamilton Gardens, Portmore, St Catherine, resident said.

Palmer said the angel of death started stalking her family in 1998 when her brother, Oral Crooks, was murdered. This was followed by Cecil Murray, Cedric's father, who was killed at the exact location as his son in 2006. Two years later the family was plunged into mourning again when Wayne Crooks, another of her siblings, was shot and killed. As the family tried to pick up the pieces to their lives, Adrian Crooks, another of Palmer's brother was murdered in 2018. Their deaths were followed by her nephew, Johnoy Crooks, who was gunned down earlier this year.

The tears trickled down her face as she watched other family members threw shovels of dirt on the blood stains of her relatives. Cedric, a pig farmer, was said to be in a jubilant mood just hours before and even rang in his 46th birthday on Friday at the same bar that he met his demise.

According to police reports, about 8:30 p.m. Crooks, Manley and another man were patrons at a bar when they were approached by one man on foot who opened fire at them. The three men were rushed to the Spanish Town Hospital where Crooks and Manley were pronounced dead and the other patron admitted. The police are yet to provide a motive for Saturday's brutal slaying.

Palmer described her 46-year-old brother as a hard worker and one known to be a peacemaker.

"Cedric was a good, nice, loving person and him wasn't a man of war. Him raise him pig dem to take care of him children. He was the most peaceful man in the community and he is the one who will make everything smooth. Is we family own the bar so it natural for him to be out by the bar a drink him special and dem little ting deh. All now mi can't believe," she said.

Palmer said she was at work when she got the call and all she could do was scream.

"All of this hard bad, enuh. Mi never deh home but mi hear say is a lot of shot fire. Mi poor brother-in-law Richard was a good person too. Him nuh give trouble. Him just do him little work and go home," she said.