The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

JUST two days after celebrating his 21st birthday, Jarred Evans was gunned down outside a Cordeaux Street bar while reportedly trying to ensure his girlfriend and friends got inside safely, a final act of care that cost him his life.

His girlfriend, Ciara McKenzie, believes Evans wasn’t the intended target but a bystander caught in a burst of gunfire that turned their night of celebration into heartbreak.

The couple had been wrapping up a weekend of birthday festivities — his on Friday, hers on Sunday — that included a party, ATV rides with friends, and a   final night out.

“We went to Enve and after Enve, we went Tipsys and he never made it inside,” Ms McKenzie said. “He was trying to make sure that everybody that we came with got inside but only me end up making it inside because right after, that’s when everything broke out.”

“The killers pulled up and he tried turning. He got hit, and one other gentleman got hit in his leg.”

Ms McKenzie ran outside in panic, only to hear the worst.

“His last words was, ‘baby, I right here, I got hit.’

When he got shot and, I ran outside, I was asking everybody for him, and I keep saying where Jarred and that’s what he said and then he was out of it.”

According to police, a group was gathered outside the bar just after midnight Monday when a dark-coloured Japanese vehicle pulled up. A man exited, drew a firearm, and opened fire before fleeing the scene.

Two men were taken to hospital. Evans later died from his injuries, becoming the country’s 36th murder victim of the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

In a Facebook post filled with photos and videos from their final day together, Ms McKenzie shared her grief and her regret at not walking outside a moment sooner.

Still reeling from the shock, she said she couldn’t bring herself to wash his blood from her body.

“To me, for them to tell me that he was not responding, I didn’t want that blood to come off of me because I felt that was the only part of him I had left,” she said. “I did not go to bed. I stayed up all night. I did not stop crying. I feel like I was fighting for my life.”

She described Evans, a jet ski operator, as a kind, hard-working young man who loved his family and had big dreams: building a business, renting ATVs and scooters, opening a clothing store, and one day owning his own jet ski.

“He also wanted his own jet ski since he has been doing it since 2016,” she said. “He always had something on his mind.”