“Mi leave everything to God. All now I don’t cry. I’m leaving everything in God’s hand,” were the painful words of Lafay-Ann Wright, mother of 22-year-old Jahmar Farquharson, who was fatally shot by the police at his Cherry Tree Lane home in Clarendon on September 15.

“God will give me justice, because a fasting and prayer mi use. The God I serve knows everything,” Wright said.

When she saw a video on social media showing a young man opening a door for lawmen, before she knew it was her son, she was concerned about a life tragically lost, and suddenly.

“Mi a go through TikTok and mi see the video and a seh, ‘What is this? Di man dem see this yah bredda put him hand [up]?’ and mi a sey, ‘God, a hope dem nuh hurt the person,’” she recalled. “Mi see somebody else put it up, and den mi realise it was my own child.”

Reports from the police are that sometime after 3 pm on September 15, lawmen went to a premises in the southern Clarendon community in search of a firearm, when their search was disrupted after Farquharson allegedly pulled a gun and was subsequently shot.

Wright insists the account of her son’s death does not align with the son she raised.

“I was not there, and I don’t know what happened, but that video clip tells me everything. The way I grow my child, he was simply following instructions,” Wright said.

“Mi can guarantee when him open the door, him say, ‘Good evening, officers’, ‘cause a suh him stay. A suh him grow. If him pass yuh 10 times, a 10 ‘good morning’,” she said.

During an interview, Hamish Campbell, Assistant Commissioner of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), confirmed that his team had secured the original closed-circuit television footage relating to the incident as part of its probe.

“When they went to the premises, [the police] report that Mr Jahmar Farquharson answered the door to the police, let the police in, and the police then reported that they cleared the house to ensure no one else was in. Then they took Mr Farquharson back to his room. Mr Farquharson wasn’t handcuffed or restrained in any way,” Campbell said.

“The officers report that upon reaching the room, Farquharson reached for a firearm which was among some clothing items, and two officers discharged two rounds each, and Farquharson was fatally shot. That’s the police account,” he said.

The police further reported that a 9mm pistol was recovered from the scene. Campbell noted that no other witnesses were on the property.

For Wright, however, her son was no gunman. He was ambitious, loving, and humble. A past student of Denbigh High and Vere Technical High Schools, he had completed sixth form before securing employment with the National Water Commission. Alongside steady work, he poured his energy into entrepreneurship, running a catering business, assisting his family with honey production, and taking on welding jobs.

“Him do all kind a work…every likkle thing. Him all do honey business with his people dem, him do welding…anything him catch, him do,” she said, her pride piercing through the grief.

The mother admitted she never liked the idea of her son living in Cherry Tree Lane, a community long shadowed by violence. However, Farquharson had chosen to make the community his home about three years ago.

Last Friday, the family led a protest in the parish capital, May Pen, against what they say was “a grave injustice”, and “the cold-blooded murder” of Farquharson, whom they eulogised as humble, friendly and hard-working.