Gunn Hill man cut down in hail of bullets

Laura Garraway, mother of slain Gunn Hill resident Andre ‘Judge’ Bowens is beseeching young people to turn from their wicked ways and put God first.

“We have some young people in Ottley Hall, every minute they talking about gun and shooting. I am warning the young people.{{more}} It is not a nice road to go down. When you have to die, where are you going to spend eternity? If you live by the gun, you surely die by it,” a distraught Garraway told SEARCHLIGHT, less than 24 hours after her son was murdered in a hail of bullets.

In a press statement, police say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Bowens, which occurred at Gunn Hill on September 15.

According to the release, “reports are that the deceased sustained gunshot wounds about his head and body by an unknown assailant.”

Bowens, said to be in his early forties, subsequently died on the spot.

A post-mortem examination is expected to be performed on the body.

Garraway, a mother of six, says she is shaken up by the turn of events, but is putting all her faith in God.

“I really feel sad. I really, really feel sad and I really can’t believe that he die. I know my God is able to see us through. I know God grace and mercy will see me through.

“Put down the weapon of rebellion. They have children and this is not the way they will like to see their father gone down. This is not a nice way,”

As she continues to struggle with the death of her second child, Garraway said she is more heartbroken with the fact that his children are now without their father.

“I really feel it for his children. His madam right now going to have a baby without a father, but I know God will be able to see them through,” she said.

Garraway said she was at home on Tuesday night when sometime after 9 pm she heard what sounded like gunshots. Shortly after, the Ottley Hall resident said she received the dreaded telephone call that her son’s life had been snuffed out.

“I tell my husband, ‘hear dey’ and about 20 minutes after, I get the phone call that is he. I just couldn’t believe. Anytime I hear gunshots I does call his phone… I got a ride and I reached up there (at the crime scene) and up to now I ain’t see him because police say I can’t see him. I really, really feel it for Andre how he go down.

“I went down by the mortuary this morning and they told me that I can’t see him until the police comes,” a distraught Garraway said.

Not hiding the fact that her son had a checkered past, Garraway said, in the past she feared for her son’s life, but noted that he had turned over a new leaf in his life.

“He put down all these things. He turn over his life. He is a father to his children. I didn’t expect this would have happened. I didn’t hear that he was in anything.

“He would always come over by me and we would chat and I always try to guide him in the way of the Lord…. I don’t understand how this happen and who could do this wicked act to him, but God is good and God is watching down and he knows who do it…,” she said.

According to Garraway, she, on numerous occasions, warned her son, the father of six, about his ways.

“I say, ‘Andre, you come from a mighty long way… Andre always home and I really don’t know how this happen.”

Recalling the last time she saw and spoke to her son, Garraway said on Monday, Bowens he hugged and kissed her.

“I was amazed. I was in a vehicle and he come and throw his hands around me and he say ‘yo good?’ and I say ‘yea, I good’ and he told me he was going home.

Bowens’ daughter DeAndre Belgraves, who broke down mid-interview, said she spoke with her father that same day he was killed.

“I went to classes and he called me and told me to come outside. This was like after 3 and he hug me up and kissed me and give me money and told me to be safe,” a sobbing said, adding that it not often that her father said those words to her.

She said when she got home, an eerie feeling overcame her.

“When I go home, I just had this feeling and I say ‘mommy, I want to call daddy. I want to call daddy, but my mother said she didn’t have any credit. So I end up drop sleep,” she recounted.

“I saw my father in my dream and when I got up, my mommy tell me my father dead,” Belgrave said, as she had to be consoled by her cousin, Devonte.

She said despite her father’s ways, she wants people to remember him as a person who was always been there for her, no matter what.

His heavily pregnant girlfriend, who had to be consoled by other relatives, said she was in no position to talk as she sobbed profusely on the bosom of a woman.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s , Bowens was charged in a series of gun related offences including discharging a loaded firearm at a police officer. He was acquitted of that charge, but made regular court appearances and in 2002, was on the most wanted list of the police, after he failed to turn up in court for the October 2001 and February 2002 assizes. He was scheduled to appear for discharging a loaded firearm.

Investigations are continuing into his murder.