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Tivoli seeks answers from book of the dead
Published: Thursday | June 3, 2010
Germain Gordon, known as 'Porridge Man'.
Michael Riley
Dwight Melford
Adams Thomas
Barbara Mansel holds a pic of her 21-year-old son Bojon Rochester.
Marjorie Williams shows the passports of both her sons who were killed in the west Kingston firefight last week. Williams was among many persons at the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre in search of their relatives. - photos by Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer
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Laura Redpath, Senior Staff Reporter Pasty intestines mushroomed from an unknown woman's stomach as her bloated body lay cushioned on the grass.
A man was still on a bed, naked, with his arms by his side. His intestines were visible too.
Skin was peeled from another man's arm, revealing a network of blood vessels.
Relatives of loved ones who died during last week's civil unrest in west Kingston were allowed to see photographs of the bodies, some of which were bloated and contorted.
"Where's your white shirt?" a law-enforcement official at the Denham Town Police Station asked one woman who was there to see the photographs.
"Nuh you march for yuh 'Presi' and you come in here looking for relative?" he continued, seated in his chair, surrounded by walls with dirt marks. ('Presi' refers to fugitive Christopher Coke, the ousted Tivoli Gardens enforcer who is wanted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking and gunrunning).
Some minutes later, a woman walked in with two others. They headed straight for the album, their fingers slowly flipping through the pages as they spoke to each other in hushed tones.
One of them found what she was looking for and said quietly, "Mi find mi nephew," before walking out of the office, her lips relaxed and her eyes dry.
Pages of photographs showed almost the same thing. The first few captured unseeing eyes covered with cataract-like film, some of which had slipped out of their sockets.
Survivors struggle to cope
Meanwhile, the survivors of last week's ordeal continue to offer each other comfort and some have managed to forge relationships with law-enforcement personnel.
Two Island Special Constabulary Force cops, their legs swinging and heads nodding emphatically, bantered with Tivoli Gardens residents under a tree.
Women were everywhere, carrying on with their chores, evident by clean clothes and tablecloths hanging from lines, against the backdrop of razor wire and rubble.
Public Defender Earl Witter's sweat-soaked dress shirt told a story: It was indeed a scorching day in Tivoli Gardens.
He addressed residents who surrounded him outside the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, asking them to be patient as families browsed through photographs, identifying dead relatives inside.
As soon as he finished, Sonia Wright approached him.
"Mi need fi find mi son," she said loudly.
"We know you need to find him," the public defender replied, pointing out that others were in the same position as she was.
He walked away, leaving grieving mothers to lament their loss.
"My son leave out a di house," Wright said, "and him go and see a million soldier and him seh him a come back a him yard.
"Dem kick weh him foot and seh fi pick up di dead body dem put inna di truck. Him seh him can't do it because him nuh kill people."
The mother stared off into the distance. Her son, Alfred Parker, was 29 when he ran and stumbled on a neighbour's veranda after being shot, she told The Gleaner.
"Mi want mi son," she said. "Mi don't need Bruce fi bury mi son. Mi need mi child!"
Published: Thursday | June 3, 2010
Germain Gordon, known as 'Porridge Man'.
Michael Riley
Dwight Melford
Adams Thomas
Barbara Mansel holds a pic of her 21-year-old son Bojon Rochester.
Marjorie Williams shows the passports of both her sons who were killed in the west Kingston firefight last week. Williams was among many persons at the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre in search of their relatives. - photos by Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer
1 2 3 4 5 6 >
Laura Redpath, Senior Staff Reporter Pasty intestines mushroomed from an unknown woman's stomach as her bloated body lay cushioned on the grass.
A man was still on a bed, naked, with his arms by his side. His intestines were visible too.
Skin was peeled from another man's arm, revealing a network of blood vessels.
Relatives of loved ones who died during last week's civil unrest in west Kingston were allowed to see photographs of the bodies, some of which were bloated and contorted.
"Where's your white shirt?" a law-enforcement official at the Denham Town Police Station asked one woman who was there to see the photographs.
"Nuh you march for yuh 'Presi' and you come in here looking for relative?" he continued, seated in his chair, surrounded by walls with dirt marks. ('Presi' refers to fugitive Christopher Coke, the ousted Tivoli Gardens enforcer who is wanted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking and gunrunning).
Some minutes later, a woman walked in with two others. They headed straight for the album, their fingers slowly flipping through the pages as they spoke to each other in hushed tones.
One of them found what she was looking for and said quietly, "Mi find mi nephew," before walking out of the office, her lips relaxed and her eyes dry.
Pages of photographs showed almost the same thing. The first few captured unseeing eyes covered with cataract-like film, some of which had slipped out of their sockets.
Survivors struggle to cope
Meanwhile, the survivors of last week's ordeal continue to offer each other comfort and some have managed to forge relationships with law-enforcement personnel.
Two Island Special Constabulary Force cops, their legs swinging and heads nodding emphatically, bantered with Tivoli Gardens residents under a tree.
Women were everywhere, carrying on with their chores, evident by clean clothes and tablecloths hanging from lines, against the backdrop of razor wire and rubble.
Public Defender Earl Witter's sweat-soaked dress shirt told a story: It was indeed a scorching day in Tivoli Gardens.
He addressed residents who surrounded him outside the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, asking them to be patient as families browsed through photographs, identifying dead relatives inside.
As soon as he finished, Sonia Wright approached him.
"Mi need fi find mi son," she said loudly.
"We know you need to find him," the public defender replied, pointing out that others were in the same position as she was.
He walked away, leaving grieving mothers to lament their loss.
"My son leave out a di house," Wright said, "and him go and see a million soldier and him seh him a come back a him yard.
"Dem kick weh him foot and seh fi pick up di dead body dem put inna di truck. Him seh him can't do it because him nuh kill people."
The mother stared off into the distance. Her son, Alfred Parker, was 29 when he ran and stumbled on a neighbour's veranda after being shot, she told The Gleaner.
"Mi want mi son," she said. "Mi don't need Bruce fi bury mi son. Mi need mi child!"
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