SOMERTON, St James — Despite the insurmountable grief and pain being experienced by Horace Hodges, the father of six-year-old Jordanion ‘Magic’ Hodges, who was shot dead near his home on Monday, the elder Hodges says he has no ill feeling towards his son’s killer(s).

Young Hodges was being transported on a motorcycle, driven by 27-year-old Kuwayne Hemmings on Windsor Road in their Somerton community in St James when they were peppered with bullets by unknown thugs as they were about to disembark the bike at Hemmings’ gate, next door to where the infant lived.

They were both taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

“The man that cause my son’s death or whosoever do it, mi don’t even think a second to say, ‘Boy mi want see him dead.’ Mi just low [leave] it, because it done happen and killing him…and who fi kill him a guh a prison and dat can’t make mi son come back. So a just love,” said the distressed father.

“Mi lose mi son and a mi just take it. Unno can lose and just take it too. Mi love up to the man who tek mi son’s life, and I don’t think a second about him and death.

“Right now mi son gone and mi don’t have nothing to do or say, because right now mi naw guh say nothing, mi just going to leave it to God. Because if mi a guh on like mi want fight back, is just like mi a kill same way.”

The elder Hodges, who was speaking to reporters at the Adelphi Police Station in St James on Tuesday, appealed to perpetrators of violence to tread a different path.

“Mi beg everybody just cut out the crime thing because too much innocent lives are being lost, mi a tell you the God truth. Tell you the truth, just cut it out, just cut out it. Mi a beg the youth them fi cut out the crime,” he bemoaned.

He argued that the attackers who killed his son are now remorseful.

“Right now the person who do it sorry. Mi don’t ask you; a tell mi a tell you. Dem sorry to dem heart,” he reasoned.

On Tuesday, when the Jamaica Observer West visited Somerton All-Age and Infant School where young Hodges was a student, the entire school community was saddened.

The school’s principal, Glendon Brydson, noted that the slain youngster had great potential.

“He’s one of the most outstanding Infant [School] student. As a matter of fact, he was very jovial, very intelligent, a nice boy to work with in a class. A personal friend,” said the head of the school.

The grief-stricken father concurred.

“My youth ‘Magic’ was brilliant, bright. Him good inna everything. Him never get a test at school for spelling and got one wrong. Everything right, a suh him stay. Him just brilliant and thing, but boy him just stop early, boy. It happened, and God knows why,” he said, as he broke down in tears.

Member of Parliament for St James East Central, Edmund Bartlett, condemned the double murder, as he appealed to his constituents to remain calm.

“This is a dastardly act which resulted in the premature end of young Hodges and of course the double murder. The community of Somerton abhors this behaviour and I am calling on the security forces to leave no stone unturned in apprehending the perpetrators. I offer my personal condolences to the families and ask the community to remain calm and prayerful, as we continue to deal with this scourge of crime and violence,” said Bartlett, who is also tourism minister.

He also used the opportunity to take a swipe at the Opposition People’s National Party for refusing to lend further support to the state of public emergency imposed in January 2018 in St James, which ended almost two months ago.

“Every additional life that is lost that could have been saved is an indictment on those who continue to oppose law and order in the country,” Bartlett told the Observer West.