The heart-wrenching wails of a mother’s loss could be heard in St Michael, yesterday.
When a DAILY NATION team visited the home of Jewel Drakes, she was in no condition to speak to reporters. She lost her son, 20-year-old Romario Yarde, on Sunday following a shooting, and her anguished cries could be heard from the distance.
Instead, Yarde’s older sister Tamara managed to answer some questions although she too was struggling.
“My brother was the type of person who would make anybody laugh and he would not interfere with anybody. He would just holla hard but he would not do anybody nothing,” she said.
Tamara said she and her brother, two of eight children, were very close and she felt his loss deeply.
“I saw him that morning and all he tell me was he want some cream [body lotion] and that was the last thing my brother ever tell me,” she said as she fought back the tears.
She described him as a person who liked to stay home and watch television, but that he sometimes went “out with the boys”. She said he was unemployed and did not have any children.
Tamara said she knew her role was to be strong for her family but it was hard, adding they wanted the issue resolved so they could all be at rest.
Original reports said Yarde was shot by someone in a passing vehicle while he was on Collymore Rock before unknown people took him to the hospital.
However, police sources said yesterday they now had reason to believe Yarde was shot elsewhere, adding that investigations into the matter were continuing.