SPIRIT LASH

The final act of Hackimeel Harrichand before he was shot dead on Saturday last, was preaching to gunmen to put down their guns.

According to his adopted mother, Iesha Jackman Archer, the 22-year-old man was inspired to go from block to block, preaching against violence, after he got a “spirit lash” from the relative of a person he was purported to have killed.

Archer, who yesterday spoke to reporters at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, is now taking up her son’s mantle, and calling for gunmen to stop the violence.

“These people don’t want to stop this killing!” said the mother yesterday. “I forgive the people that did this to him, but what goes around comes around. Revenge is God’s own and his only.”

Archer told Newsday yesterday her son was last year a witness to a murder. He was questioned, but did not give up the killer, and was himself locked up in relation to the crime.

He was released from prison about two months ago, but he came back a changed man.

“It was like he went mad or something,” Archer said. “He said he got a vision that told him to go to the criminals and tell them to stop killing each other. He would start going in places that he should not go in because he is a Muslim – areas that I and all would not dare go – and preaching to the gunmen.”

At about 11.15 on Saturday, gunshots were heard along St Paul Street, and Block Eight, in Laventille. Residents called police, and when they responded they found the bullet riddled body of Harrichand lying on the roadway.

Archer told Newsday when she saw her son, he was clad in Muslim garb, and was clutching a Quran. Newsday was told that he went into the area, which is controlled by Rasta City gang members in the clothing, to preach non-violence in the area.

Archer described her son as a sweet, loving child. She said several years ago, relatives had him locked up and placed in YTC, after he was caught breaking into a home, and stealing food. Archer said she went to court, and requested that she take custody of the young man. She told reporters yesterday her adopted son had not been involved in any criminal activity. She still does not know why he was killed.

“He has no gun, nothing. I would not be standing here, saying that he was innocent when he is not. I am a God-fearing woman myself, and if he was in stupidness I would say. But my child was not in nothing.” Archer said.

An autopsy done at the Forensic Science Centre in St James confirmed that Harrichand died from multiple gunshot wounds

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