Murray’s Village shooting victim’s family in pain over their loss

The victims of violent deaths are not the only ones affected by such crimes, the fallout moreso is felt by surviving family members and other loved ones left behind.

This is true of the Lee family of Murray’s Village who has lost two members (brothers) through gun violence a little less than eight weeks apart.

Last Sunday June 16, 2024, at around 4.30 p.m., Zeno “Sarge” Lee, 33, was shot dead on the spot when a lone gunman rushed into The Waterfall Bar where he was hanging out with friends at Murray’s Village. Another man, Enrique “Crash” McClean/King, was shot and is currently at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH).

Zeno is the brother of national footballer, 31 year old Zenroy Lee, who was shot weeks earlier. On Wednesday evening April 24, 2024, Zenroy was shot and killed while sitting at the roadside in Murray’s Village. Later that evening at around 8:50 p.m., gunshots rang out again, this time in the neighbouring community of Redemption Sharpes where police shot and killed 35 year old Romano “No Mercy” Pompey who was suspected in the shooting death of Zenroy. Police officers reportedly shot at Pompey when he pointed a firearm at them.

When SEARCHLIGHT visited the Lee family on Monday, one day after the shooting that took Zeno’s life his mother, Mavis and his sister, Michelle were distraught and could not hold back tears.

Both told of the emotional, psychological and physical damage they have experienced because of the brazen acts of violence that have befallen their close-knit family. Nightmares, heart palpitations and sleepless nights are what they said now affect family members, with Michelle even fainting once when recollecting her brother, Zenroy’s killing.

“When I heard the shots an them, and I run cross and tell them, ‘you know Zeno down the bar say he gone and pack up, go down and see’, and I drop down,” the dead man’s mother told SEARCHLIGHT, revealing that she fell over on Sunday even before receiving confirmation that her son was killed.

Lee said she heard screams after the gunshots died down, and the reason she fainted was that she was certain that once her son was in the area of the gunfire he had been shot.

Mavis Lee also said that she went to the area of the shooting and fainted twice more before being taken to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH). The bereaved mother said she has vended on the streets near to her home for 30 years and Zeno would always make sure everything was in order.

“He was a very nice boy to me,” she stressed, a sentiment shared by Michelle, who noted that she has never heard her brother say a harsh word to their mother or any other member of the family.

“When I might say something out the way to my mommy, or mumble something, I never, never…he would never curse dirty word or get out of character with people, the most he would do, laugh,” Michelle said.

She revealed that on Saturday June 15, 2024,her brother was instrumental in planning a carnival street jump-up that many persons in the community enjoyed.

Michelle revealed also that she had dreamt of the demise of her brothers, and she had never liked the presence of Romano “No Mercy” Pompey in the neighbourhood, the man who is thought to have shot and killed Zenroy.

She said that while some people may have opinions about persons when they are killed, including Zeno, she and her brother were very close and he was a community and family-oriented person who was kind to his relatives and believed in helping persons in need and would always listen to her advice.

A resident of the community who spoke to SEARCHLIGHT on Sunday, about an hour after the shooting, said the way the gunman approached the area, many persons could have been hurt, bringing back memories of the Wednesday July 19, 2023 shooting deaths of five men on Upper Bay Street, Harbour Club.

On that day, Lamont “Dutchie” Hector, Dondre Hillocks, Jamal Bobb, Ricky Taylor, and Kashie Primus lost their lives when gunmen open fire on a group of men.

“The man just start fire shot, and Crash been struggling with he,” the Murray Village man said. “Crash” is the moniker of the second man shot on Sunday who is currently in the ICU at the MCMH.

“The man start shooting, and people start running, and one man break (fracture) out he foot and had to go hospital. People were running all over, and Sarge end up dead in the river with half his face out the water and water running over he,” the angry resident said.

He said that Zeno lost his life in similar fashion to that of another Murray’s Village resident, Nekeita “Cheeks” Roberts. Roberts and another man, Glenroy Isaacs, were shot in the leg but survived when gunmen opened fire on Roberts in March 2021. Roberts and Zeno were said to be close friends.

The Police have opened an investigating into this latest shooting.