By Denise Clarke, Staff Reporter
Amari - cut down by cop's bullet. - Contributed
WESTERN BUREAU:
"WARM" AND "full a manners" is how 13-year-old Amari Wedderburn is being remembered by family and friends.
The teenager had gone with a friend to buy food last Friday night when he lost his life to a policeman's bullet. His father, Clifford Wedderburn, was busy preparing chicken to feed gravediggers when The Gleaner visited on Monday.
The family has not had time to grieve. So consumed are they with anger at Amari's sudden death, and the manner in which he was killed.
"Dem kill mi son..." said Mr. Wedderburn, looking wide-eyed. "...Right in him forehead de policeman shoot him."
Young Amari was a Grade Eight student at the Green Island High School in Hanover. His father described him as a well-behaved boy who rarely got into trouble. Amari was a good student at school, and an even better person at home, his father said.
BURIAL COSTS
"Him have him friends dem who him joke with just like any teenager. Him never deserve to get dead like that," said his aunt, Yvonne Gordon.
Amari's uncle, Eric Wedderburn, with whom the teenager lived for most of his life, was visibly upset. At that time, no police personnel had spoken to the family about the circumstances surrounding the teenager's death.
"Who suppose to stand (the cost of) this burial, that is what I want to know... is we or the police," the uncle demanded.
"A pure disrespect and nothing behind it," said Amari's father. "De policeman just come and kill off mi pickney just like that."
Neighbours also described the teen as mild-mannered and friendly. "Him really full of manners," said one neighbour.
The police alleged that Amari was accidentally shot, as a policeman struggled with a member of a crowd, who was trying to prevent the officer from apprehending someone. However, persons, claiming to be eyewitnesses, have disputed that account, claiming that he was shot in cold blood by a trigger-happy officer, who was not a member of the police party.
Following the shooting, angry residents stoned the police and damaged two vehicles, including a patrol jeep. Stones were also hurled into the Negril Post Office, and the National Commercial Bank. The Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) has launched an investigation into the shooting.
