Mom: I always asked God to change him, when I have devotions

Knowing that her son’s life was going to be dramatically shortened, the mother of the young man who was shot to death last Saturday, tried many times to get him to leave the country.{{more}}

“I tried to get him out of here, today he will say yes, and then change his mind,’ said Rosita Browne of Fairhall.

Her son, Paul “Killa” Hopson, 23, was shot to death at around 10 p.m. last Saturday, while he was watching a movie at a shop at South Wood.

A shaken Browne told SEARCHLIGHT that she was under no illusions that her son was a saint, and said she often questioned him when his name was called in relation to any crime.

“When I hear his name call I would question him, and ask him if he was involved,” Browne said.

She said that she has always had troubling dreams, which she knew referred to her son.

“Last week Saturday (August 11th) I dreamt of a short, silver sword, it was shining, and I got up scared,” Browne said.

“I always asked God to change him, when I have devotions, I prayed for his life to be changed,” she said with a resigned shake of her head.

Hopson was suspected as being part of a Kingstown gang that has been involved in a violent feud with another group over the last few months.

Police believe that at least four murders and several other shooting incidents this year have been linked to this feud.

“I don’t know how he ended up in that group in town,” said Rosita.

She said that she tried to discourage him from spending time in the Paul’s Avenue area but to no avail.

The broken hearted mother says she is praying hard for her son’s murderer to be caught, not for revenge, but so that another mother won’t have to go through what she is going through.

Browne also believes that her son linked up with the gang for protection.

She said that her son has been the victim of police brutality on many occasions.

“I don’t know why, but ever since, police always used to take advantage of him, even when he was a van conductor,’ she said.

“Many times I saw for myself police drag him off the bus for no reason, no reason at all,” she said.

The experienced seamstress said that she was also aware that police questioned Hopson in relation to the January 6 murder of Cheruice Trotman, who was shot to death in Paul’s Avenue.

“When I heard he was a suspect, I asked him over and over about it but he said that he didn’t do it,” she said.

Browne said that she believes that her son knew he was going to die that night because he was at home and suddenly just got up and went up the road.

“If he was home they might have come here to kill him and kill us too,” she pondered.

She said that her heart dropped when someone called her, and another came running, to tell her what happened.

Browne is hopeful however, that despite her son’s questionable lifestyle, that he may have found the Lord before making his journey over the horizon of life.

“Before he left home Saturday night he was watching TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) and I heard before he died he asked God to have mercy on him,” she said.

“I don’t care what people want to say, regardless if he was good or bad, he will be missed,’ Browne declared, mustering a tone of defiance in the midst of her sorrow.

Browne also wanted to make it clear that her Paul’s nickname “Killa” wasn’t given to him because of any crime he did, but because of his efficiency as a van conductor.

“When he started working on vans, the other guys would say he is killing them, so they started calling him Killa,” Browne explained. (KJ)