'My last job was gunman'

Photos: Afflicted Yard

FACED with 1,600+ murders yearly, it's unsurprising that many Jamaicans support shoot-first policing to get gunmen off the streets. But what about prevention, about youths who view the gun as their only choice and a glamorous one at that? Somebody, something, somehow needs to get different messages into their heads.

We hear reports like the five-year-old boy who brought a gun to school, because his friend 'had lunch with his girl'. And then there was Shaun*, a 'retired gunmen' I interviewed a few years ago. He was a polite, bright 19-year-old who found God, long after first picking up a gun aged just 13.

"AR-15, glock wit extended clip, AK-47, telescope rifle, pump-action shotgun," said Shaun, listing weapons he'd handled. He told me that he hadn't killed anyone; didn't even know whether he'd actually even shot anyone. But then gunfights are hardly events where you'd choose to linger after.

Meeting him, I really wasn't on the look for a teenage serial killer. Rather I simply wanted to gain some understanding as to how the Shauns – as if he was a type – actually became gunmen. He started with his background:

My father was a gunman n' kill people n' ting. When mi deyah school it was a gun ting we d'pon beca even tho wi was inna di girl ting, wi did tek it to a next level beca wi did waa start run the school. Me's a yute, tru mi lef school wit no subject so it really become di gun ting. It kinda difficult to get work and yu find yuself commit some small crime n' start tief and dem tings dere.


He never reached the level of a 'top shotta', but he as explained it, being a gunman could be like any other career, with its own measures of achievement and moving up the corporate ladder. Or, it can be ended abruptly.

It start off like a casual job until yu get a promotion. Mi never tek it to the nex level cos it like a process: at first yu start par wit di man; second level dem start gi yu gun fi hide; third level dem send yu go do some tings; fourth level you start tief and di fifth is where yu kill a man.

He recounted a few stories, incidents like when a group of youths aligned to his crew stole two AK-47s – a decision that cost two of their lives. There were nights spent patrolling their turf, and on one occasion, an ambush at pointblank range where a dozen bullets flew passed his head. But being honest, this was something Shaun enjoyed.

Normal people woulda see this ting and seh 'who dem, why dem fire pon one another?' But wi tek it as an enjoyment ting but in a sense dat, if mi see yu an yu a mi enemy, den mi a kill yu. It fun fi wi. It's such a nice feeling becah when u have a gun pon u it like no boy can gi u any talk but if 'im do, u gona kill 'im.


Then, Shaun's moral compass pointed in a very different direction to most people. "It just feel nice fi click it," he said, still feeling nostalgia for the trigger mechanism. Even finding employment could not keep him away from guns.

It get fi a point where I get a lickle security work but mi bleach a nighttime an mi nah get no form of sleep becah me waa kill two boy. Beca me waa mek mi two duppy too; becah even though yu par among di top shotta dem who kill like 8, 9, 10 people, fi u come into di ting too, yu hafi mek your stripes.

His escape came suddenly and fortuitously. A rival gang member tipped him off about the hit coming his way. It was one brave act between murderous youths which save his life. Now in the Church, Shaun says he has no plans to return to his past. He has a choice.

*Name withheld to protect identity