Did Walvaroo gunshot victim know he was going to die?

The mother and sisters of Uroy “Laybay” Robertson are hurt, but at the same time relieved at his passing, and believe the young man knew he was about to die.{{more}}

Joan Robertson, Uroy’s mother, along with his younger sisters Meronique and Tashell, visited SEARCHLIGHT’s office on Wednesday, three days after their relative was gunned down on the Walvaroo, Sion Hill road.

The 24-year-old suffered a single gunshot to the left side of his head, which destroyed his brain, and lodged in his right cheek, less than an hour after being released from police custody.

His mother told SEARCHLIGHT that although she knew her son was a ‘bad boy’, she was not aware of some of the offences he was alleged to have committed until recently, when she read about them in the SEARCHLIGHT newspaper.

“I never know that my son was a witness to no murder case until five weeks ago when he got shot in his hand, and we saw in the paper that he was a star witness,” she said.

“He never used to tell us anything; we know he bad, but he all time hiding his badness from us.”

Joan and her daughters added that they would usually hear things on the street that “Laybay” as he was called, was involved in various crimes, which were usually violent, and when they asked him about it, he would usually curse, or would not say anything, which was his way of protecting them.

“He never used to want to get his sisters involved in anything, so he never told us anything,” Tashell reasoned.

“At one time, we never used to be interested in the newspaper, because every time we go to the newspaper is Uroy face we seeing; so it come like we get fed up looking at the newspaper and looking at the television, so it had a time that we never used to watch the news, because every time we watch the news, Uroy did this and Uroy did that, and sometimes it never was Uroy; is because Uroy is a bad boy he name have to call.”

The fourth of six children and the only boy, Robertson was, over the years, implicated in a number of crimes, including possession and discharging of a firearm, robbery and assault.

For some of these offences, the 24-year-old father of a son who turns two years old next month, spent some time behind bars. He was currently out of jail on bail.

His mother and sisters say that although Robertson was not the best person, there was a side of him that most people didn’t know.

They said that he had a sense of humour; and since he was shot in his arm in July this year, they began to see changes in him for the better.

“We know he was a bad boy, but he had some good qualities; he never got us involved with anything he was doing,” Joan said.

“We know he was a bad boy, but there was still some good about him. When he got shot, this is what he told me: ‘Make up your mind to lose me, or for me to be spending my life in jail… but I not going to be spending my life in prison, so make up your mind for me to die. Do not cry when I’m gone, because I did plenty,” she recalled.

“When he got shot, he said ‘Me do more than this, this is what come back to me, because me do more than this to people.’ That is the only time he ever admit anything to me.”

“This week he keep saying ‘I want to change because I going to die.’ He say on Wednesday ‘if I die, give my two soldiers them things for me,’ Meronique added.

According to the relatives, Robertson spent the last week at home with his family, something that he did not do on a regular basis.

That week, Meronique said, Uroy expressed to them that he was fed up of running, and that he had made up his mind to die.

On Wednesday night, she said she saw her brother do something that she had never seen him do before.

“I watch my brother round the table praying: ‘God forgive me. I did plenty in life.’ He confess, I won’t say what he confess, but he confess, and he was like ‘God find a resting place for me.’ And then he go pon the ground and he tek off all he clothes and leave on he boxers and spread out (as if crucified) and say ‘Lord have mercy pon me weary soul, home sweet home.’”

The following day (Thursday), the sisters related that their brother played with his son in a way he never did before, chasing him around the house and smothering him with kisses.

On Friday, Robertson joked around with his father before ‘scrunting’ him for $100, which his father gave to him.

Later that day, he was picked up on suspicions of robbing a young man.

His youngest sister visited at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) offices in at the Central Police Station on Saturday, where she brought his breakfast.

He was released the next evening around 7 p.m. and less than one hour later, he was dead.

The family members say that his death would close an unpleasant chapter in the family’s history, and they hope for a new beginning for themselves.

“I tell my mother, ‘mammy now Uroy dead you don’t have to fraid to go church no more. You can hold up your head high and walk in the street; you know he did bad…. We have to understand that he hurt other families too… other families were grieving just like how we are grieving now,’ Meronique told SEARCHLIGHT.

“Nobody have to call me from CID again; nobody have to watch us again when anybody get kill and say ‘I believe is Laybay,’” said Joan.

“We are kind of relieved,” Tashell added. “Because everything (bad) it was just him.”

Robertson will be laid to rest this Sunday, after a funeral service at the Evesham Seventh Day Adventist Church.