Tonight, a family is preparing to bury a child who should have been preparing for the new school year. 9-year-old Jamir Mckoy was shot around 8:30 Monday night in Unitedville, along with another teenager. That teenager, 18-year-old Lloyd Myvette, passed away and last night, you heard his mother pleading to gang members to put down the guns.
Meanwhile, Jamir had been recovering at the hospital, but this morning, his family went from hopeful to heartbroken after Jamir also succumbed to his injuries. Today the family gathered at the crime scene - Jamir's mother's food shack - to grieve a life gone way too soon. Courtney Menzies spoke with his father and has this story.
Yesterday, a brave 9-year-old was awake and talking in his hospital bed after going through what no child should ever have to face. And while hopes were high that Jamir Mckoy would recover from his gunshot wound, his family was stricken by the news that he passed away suddenly this morning.
Young Jamir was with his father and a friend on Monday night at his mother's food shack when shots were fired at them. The friend, 18-year-old Lloyd Myvette, died shortly after, but Jamir made it to the Western Regional Hospital where he underwent surgery. His father explained that it was until last night that his condition changed drastically.
Jamil Mckoy, Father of Deceased
"He was talking very good, he mentioned to me that he doesn't want to die and he even mentioned the person that shot him, he even called the name but he was conscious, very conscious, talking all the way to the hospital. Even tell the driver to hurry up to reach the hospital."
"Sometime last night about after 10, 11 my wife text me and tell me that Jamir was not feeling well, was not breathing well and so she said she went to the doctor and the doctor check him and said he had an infection or something like that. So they took him to Belize City about 1:30 this morning and so I end up waking up early this morning, my aunt, my cousin, and they took me to Belize City but I got the call when I was at 8 miles, they told me my son didn't make it, he passed away a little bit after 8 this morning."
It was tragic news for this father of five, who explained that they didn't live a life shrouded in crime so they couldn't have expected this to happen. He said it was a wrong place, wrong time situation and that the gunman missed the intended targets who were nearby.
Jamil Mckoy, Father of Deceased
"We don't have no gang related or no fighting for no turf or nothing like that but I guess that someone at the wrong place at the wrong time. But nothing like drugs or turf or nothing like that. Just someone was around who shouldn't be around and you know how that thing goes, innocent man get hit."
And now this standard three student - who just had orientation the day he was shot - will never get the chance to graduate primary school. And his mother will have to bury the third member of her family in the span of about three months.
Jamil Mckoy, Father of Deceased
"Everybody knows Jamir, Jamir was a very bright child, and everybody know him around here, he's bright, he's very friendly, a person who's not ashamed of anyone, he could not know you and he will go and talk to you, ask you questions, but he's a very bright boy and we're gonna miss him, we also call him biggie, that's his nickname. He was a kind kid, love to play, he and the other guy that passed away was very very close friends."
"It's a big hole in my family, really really gonna miss my son Biggie because he was a bright child, very friendly, respectful, mannerly, so it really put a big tear in my family, and especially me because he is the one that mostly take the reflection of me, as you can see he almost favor me, it's like a hole in my heart even more worse for my wife because just like two weeks before she put her mom to rest and two months before that she had put her dad to rest so it's kind of hard for my wife right now."
A suspect in this double murder, 27-year-old Jovannie O'Brian, was yesterday arrested and charged along with his wife, Bettina O'Brian, for another crime. Police searched their Unitedville home and found two 9mm live rounds of ammunition. They were charged for kept ammunition without a gun license.
