My Personal Story

My personal story I will be writing about is the time I saw a dead man’s head, without the rest of the body that is, a couple of houses from my house. It was the scariest most bizarre thing I have ever experience in all my 17 years of living.
This terrible act all stemmed from an ongoing rivalry between two set of groups .It was reported that this feud started when Blackadread, the leader of the first gang, was shot in his foot by a man from the other group. From that day Blackadread always had a hatred for not just the man who shot him, but for the man’s family at large .The man who shot Blackadread had a son by the name of Triston who lived in Lionel town where Blackadread reside. It was said that Blackadread had ordered Triston to never enter his turf or walk around where he lived.
Triston, however, never took the warnings.
One day as Triston and his friends were walking by where Blackadread and his friends were sitting they started to taunt and began to throw stones at Triston and his friends.Triston and his friends then immediately turned around and started to throw back stones at the group. It was at that moment when Blackadread took out his gun and started to fire multiple shots at Triston and his friends. It was then reported that the boys began to run. Triston, however, wasn’t lucky enough as he was gunned down and shot in his mouth and left to die.
This all happened when I was at school. On my way from school in the taxi I overheard the driver talking about a shooting in Lionel Town and someone getting shot and in serious condition. He didn’t say who it was. It was only when I got home that I heard that it was my friend Triston who had been shot. I was so terrified the only thing I could do was to pray that he was alright.
Triston thankfully had survived the shot, but this was just the beginning. Triston’s father wanted revenge. He wanted everyone who was responsible for his sons shooting to pay the price.
It didn’t take long for the first fatal killing to occur. It took place on a school night.
On around 9:00 pm on a Tuesday night, my friend came to my house and told me that there was a shooting couple of houses from where I lived and that the man who got the shot was dead. I knew the man. At that moment I began to cry because I was terrified that I was going to get caught somehow in the line of fire, or I might just be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Immediately I called my parents crying to them telling them what had happened and telling them that I wanted to come to the United States where they were. At that time my parents were living in the U.S. They started to reassure that nothing will happen to me and that everything was going to be okay. It was said that the reason the man was shot was because he was “running up his mouth” saying that Triston deserved to be shot and that he should have died instead.
After that night pass I felt a little better because there weren’t no more shootings, until about one week later. This time it was the brother of Blackadread. When I heard about this shooting I was on my way to my aunt’s house. People started to run to where the shooting had taken place but I just continued going to my aunt’s house. When I came back home I heard that Blackadread’s brother was taken from the taxi he was in at gun point and then shot. About couple days later another brother of Blackadread was also killed.
Lionel Town became a “ghost town”. Terror filled the hearts of residents. Many wanted to vacate the area while others were very careful as to what they said in public. People were afraid to go out at night .As night fell People went into their houses and locked up their windows and doors. For me personally I was afraid to go to church at nights and even if I went the pastor would end church early so we could go home early. We were all scared for our lives.
But it wasn’t over the gang leader Blackadread who did the shooting was still on the loose. He was the only one left to go down. But it didn’t take long as his head was found on a block in the center of the street for everyone to see.
The night before Blackadread’s head was discovered my mother received a call around midnight .Her friend was asking her if she had heard the gunshots that were fired. We didn’t hear the gunshots we were all asleep. Many residents didn’t pay much attention to the gun shots. I heard that it sounded like a gun salute.
Few hours after that around 6:00 am my cousin ran over to our house to tell us the astonishing news that a dead man’s head was up the road on a block and that the head was the gang leader’s head. At that moment my mom and I still in our nightgown rush to the scene. At first I was very reluctant to look but I was brave enough and I took a quick glance at the head. My glance was so quick that I am unable to even describe it to you. What I did see was that it was very black. It was said that it was first discovered in the early morning by the victim’s sister.
The news of the dead man’s head spread like wildfire. Everyone from near and far came to see the head. Taxis and cars drove through my street just to get a glance at the head. There were cries of mourning by the bereaved family, but what was most evident was the silence of the onlookers. No one said a word. Everyone just came to look and turned around. When asked for interviews by news reporters, no one wish to say a word. No one wanted to say anything that that they might regret. Many thought that it was a possibility that the murder or murderers were in the crowd. I didn’t want to go to school that day I just wanted to stay home and watch the “excitement” not that anything was excited about the head of a dead man but the hearing the sounds of cars racing and bustling through the street and people running to get a look was amazing to see. It was the headline of all the news channels in Jamaica.
It is still unknown as to the location of the rest of Blackadread’s body and if anyone was charged for the murder. What was known however was that Blackadread was wanted for a series of murders that he had committed and as such Police were reluctant to look into case. The Police saw it as justice being served and another murderer off the street.
After couple days had past everything calmed down. Many people including myself didn’t even remember that a head was found up the street. People started to go out at nights and we were not as afraid as we were before. I had also came to the conclusion that whosoever did the killings were not interested in hurting innocent people but solely those who were apart of throwing stones at Triston and his friends and shooting Triston.
This was the most terrifying, most alarming thing I have ever experienced or that have ever happened in Lionel Town.