‘Mi dead and come back alive’

Sylvester Davidson spent much of Thursday morning searching for his 45-year-old son with much trepidation.

He said that Fitzroy ‘Peter’ Davidson, a cement factory worker, had returned home from work at approximately 9 p.m. on Wednesday and was hanging out by himself at his shop in his yard on Little King Street in Denham Town, Kingston, before he vanished.

Fitzroy’s common-law wife reported hearing him in conversation with some men who came on to their compound. After noticing that he did not return inside the house after some time, she became concerned and went outside to look for him, but he was no longer at his usual spot.

Calls to his cell phone then went unanswered, and his worried relatives launched a frantic search for him after filing a missing person’s report at the Denham Town Police Station.

On Thursday, a subdued Sylvester told The Gleaner that he searched for his son throughout the night.

At daybreak, he and other relatives moved their search to the nearby May Pen Cemetery before receiving information that a body had been spotted off Spanish Town Road.

“When mi go up deh and see him dis morning, it come in like mi in a one different world,” the heartbroken father said. “A judgement mi see. Mi dead and come back alive.”

According to police reports, at about 8 a.m. on Thursday, Fitzroy’s body was found with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head at the Old Animal Hospital at the corner of Collie Smith Drive and Spanish Town Road.

His 76-year-old father said that it appears that he was also manhandled.

“It look like dem drag him ‘cause a shorts him have on and yuh can see him leg dem bore up bore up and him neck, too,” he said. “It shake mi up. It shake mi up bad, man.”

The older Davidson said he shared a close relationship with Fitzroy, the second of his six children, who lived in an apartment next door.

“A nighttime, mi and him mother and him. When him come from work, him call mi and seh, ‘Mi come in’ ... And after dat now, mi and him and him mother deh here a reason a nighttime, and then we set up and watch 10:30 news, and dem him wi seh him a go up cause him have work a morning,” he said of their nightly routine.

Agatha Davidson said her son lived in the community for more than 18 years and was well known and respected.

“Mi cyaa eat. He was very nice, friendly, and loving. I don’t know why they kill Peter. I don’t know why they kill mi son. Mi cyaa believe seh Peter dead,” she said as she burst into tears.

Fitzroy leaves behind three children, the youngest being 21 years old.

“Him love him kids dem. As big as dem be, him do anything fi dem. Any hours a night him come in, him cook fi dem,” his father said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com