South Rivers man gunned down at night club

Relatives of slain O’Jarvi Hooper, this country’s latest murder victim, are hoping that the police catch the man who is alleged to have shot and killed the 20-year-old labourer before they do.

“I can’t believe this. I want justice. I want the police catch him before me, because if I catch him, anything can happen, I want justice. I feel anything could happen,” said Hooper’s father, Haynesworth Arrington, on Monday.

According to reports, on Boxing Day, December 26, sometime after 9 p.m., {{more}}Hooper was hanging out at ‘Africano Disco’, a popular night club in South Rivers, when he received a gunshot to the left side of his back. He succumbed to the injury while being transported to the hospital in Georgetown.

On Monday, Hooper’s father said that his son’s death may have been the end result of an ongoing dispute with a man who resides in South Rivers.

Arrington recalled that on the night his son was killed, he (Arrington) was at his uncle’s house when he heard two gunshots and commented, “dem man in Texas.”

He said about five minutes after he heard the gunshots, he saw O’Jarvi, who is the third of his four sons, running and he ran after him and met him pounding on his house door, thinking that he (Arrington) was inside.

“I asked him what do him. He was losing blood and blood began running through his mouth and nose,” recalled Arrington.

He said that persons helped him put his son in a jeep and they wanted to take him to the clinic in South Rivers, but nobody was there, so they decided to take him to the hospital in Georgetown.

Arrington said that his son took his last breath while he held him in his arms in the moving vehicle.

“When we reached an area called Cool Spot, I realized he was dying. When we reach Mt Young gas station, he say he feel like he wah swallow and he couldn’t swallow and he get silent and I said ‘he dead,’ but the people in the jeep had doubt,” explained Arrington.

The angry father said that although he was sure his son was dead on arrival at the hospital, when the doctors examined O’Jarvi and confirmed he was dead, he still couldn’t believe it.

“He was an in between guy; if you get him vex, you will come wrong, but until that, he very cool. Me and he was cool. I told him to look for work, because he wasn’t working. We were close. He use to sleep by a friend and by me,” said Arrington.

The bereaved father revealed that about a year or two ago, O’Jarvi and a man who was born in Barbados fought and he spoke to two of them and told them to live in peace.

“This was over things you could let go. I told him to have peace. I told the guy if is my son, come to me or go to the police. I thought everything was level, because I spoke to two of them, but I feel people stir it up.”

Arrington noted that what is also upsetting is that his son was shot in the back and did not get a chance to defend himself.

On Monday, an autopsy showed that the bullet that killed O’Jarvi pierced the upper part of his back, below his left shoulder, travelled through his lungs and ended up around in his throat area.

“If my son had died of cancer or was sick I wouldn’t feel so bad. When I see him at the mortuary I still wondering what going on. If it was sickness, I would feel better. To be honest, I don’t even know how I feel,” declared Arrington.

Up to press time the police were yet to make an arrest in relation to the Boxing Day murder.(LC)