Cocoyea man, 26, gunned down

On hearing gunshots while watching television at home shortly after 9 pm on Tuesday, Karlene Eccles, 51, immediately got a "bad feeling," and her fears were realised moments later.

Eccles’ son Paul "Kaya" Eccles, 26, was gunned down in the yard of the house he used to live in at Dalkeith Street, Cocoyea, San Fernando. No one else was in the house and he died in the yard.

Eccles, who lives nearby, said Paul recently began staying at her home after his relationship ended.

The father of three left her home at about 7 pm on Tuesday, saying he was going to clean the other house then return.

Crying and holding the jersey he was wearing when he left, Eccles said she somehow knew that something terrible had happened to him on hearing the gunshots.

She called a resident to ask where the shots came from and found out it happened in the yard where Paul was.

"My body felt that something was not right. I sense something was terribly wrong. I rushed up there, but he did not die as yet. I saw a gunshot wound in his face, and blood was all over his belly. I went over him and held his head," Eccles said.

She was there when he took his last breath.

Holding the jersey he last wore, Eccles said, "This is all I have to remember his smell. It was in the house. It seems he had taken it off to clean."

Paul was the eldest of her three adult children. He was Eccles' only son.

Eccles, who has heart problems, said he was always there to comfort her.

"If I had a pain, he would come and rub me. He always knew when something is wrong with me. He would say, ‘Mommy, don’t worry yourself, everything would be alright.’ I do not know what I would do now that they killed my only son. He was my darling," the weeping mother told Newsday.

"They did not have to kill him like that, whatever the reason. They killed him brutally. I loved that boy so much; I love all my children. I do not know what the killing is about."

Asked if anyone had made threats against him, Eccles said she was unaware of any.

She referred to him as a quiet, loving, and sharing person.

"I am trying to play detective to get information. The first thing people say when someone is shot, it is drug-related. Why? It could be something else," she said.

"Why do we (country) have so many guns? Why is there so much hate and anger?"

Paul had two court matters pending, for a robbery in 2016 and a gun in a car.

Homicide Bureau Region III and Southern Division police visited the scene.

No one has been arrested, and investigations are ongoing.