The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

TWO men, including one who was charged with murder, were found shot dead in the Pitt Road area yesterday.

The victims were identified by relatives as Calvin Archer, 32, and Amal Hunter, 33.

Tribune archives reveal that Hunter was wanted in March 2014 in connection with the murder of Carlos Colebrook.

Then in January 2017, he was arraigned in connection with the January 14 death of Kino Kelly. It was claimed the 33-year-old intentionally and unlawfully caused Kelly’s death by means of unlawful harm. Hunter denied committing the murder. His trial was reportedly set for 2018, but the outcome of it is unclear.

Meanwhile, Archer’s family said he was not a criminal and suggested he may have been killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Speaking to reporters on the scene, Assistant Commissioner of Police Solomon Cash said police received a call of a shooting incident shortly after 7.30am. Once the officers arrived on the scene, they discovered the lifeless bodies of two men – one victim believed to be in his early 30s and the other in his late 20s.

“One was lying in the street and the other was lying beyond me in the yard,” he said.

“It’s a bit early in the investigation, so we don’t have all the circumstances surrounding these shootings….I can tell you now that one of the victims is known to us and, of course, we are looking at his victimology and hopefully by examining his victimology we may be able to share a little more to the media.

“I can speak to one of the victims that we suspect that he is involved in gang activities and also small drug peddling.”

Some K-9 dogs were on the scene as well.

Despite a spate of violence, ACP Cash said society’s “upright and upstanding people” should not live in fear.

“We will assure the community that we are up and we are about and we will protect you as much as possible. But what we want to say to people in our society, those upright and upstanding people, that there’s no need to fear.

“You would find that in most of our incidents and our cases we find that persons are involved in acts of criminalities.”

Asked about retaliation fears, he said: “When we conduct an investigation, we look at all aspects of the investigation and particularly when we look at the victimology of persons. We consider whether or not there will be retaliation and if that is found so then we know the players and, of course, we will deploy our policing strategy to circumvent any additional retaliation.”

Meanwhile Patricia Evans, Archer’s mother, said with tears rolling down her cheeks that her son was not known to police and “just got killed for going to see his child”.

“He just sought this morning to look for his son,” she told The Tribune. “He goes to the Pitt because his child lives through the Pitt and hasn’t seen CJ in must be two or three days…..He got up getting ready to go to work. He was waiting for his ride to pick him up. His toolbox is still outside.

“I was up early this morning and I dozed back off to sleep because normally I’ll be up when he’s up and I dozed back off to sleep and when I hear a lot of gunshots. So I look through my room window and I pitch up and hear my other son say ‘Cally’.

“I pitch up and bust open the door and I say where Calvin is. He said ‘Mum, Calvin just gone through the Pitt. He gone to see CJ.’ So he broke off running through the Pitt and as I was about to come someone else met me they say ‘Mummy, that’s Cally’. I couldn’t even tell you what my son had on this morning because I missed him this morning and normally I would see him every morning.”

She recalled trying to find Archer’s son as she was told he was there when his father was killed.

“I went through there. I was told that he was there when his daddy was shot and he sit there. They said they had to move him from his daddy. I could only imagine what he is going through to see his daddy in the road like that and I went there looking for him, but I didn’t see him. Police wouldn’t allow me to go through and I sent someone to tell him to come to me. I haven’t seen him as yet,” Ms Evans said.

After speaking to this newspaper, her teen grandson appeared. The two embraced and cried together for a while. She added that Archer was not affiliated with any gang and was not a nuisance to society, but he was a humble person.

“He don’t have no bunch of people come hang up. He don’t hang out. Calvin go to work and come home.

“He has a humble spirit. You have to really do something to him to get him angry and agitated. Calvin bothers no one,” she said.