Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

Twins Akeil and Shaquille Thompson look on disconsolately after arriving home from school and getting the news that their father, Rohan Thompson, was shot and killed by gunmen at 95 Mountain View Avenue yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Yesterday was Rohan Thompson's wife's 30th birthday. But he was robbed of the joy of celebrating it with her when armed men shot and killed him at the intersection of Mountain View Avenue and Goodwich Lane in east Kingston.

The couple would have celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary in December. The grieving widow still does not know if her husband had a birthday surprise planned for her.

"I got up this morning, it was my birthday and he got up and made breakfast for them (children) and he said happy birthday and told me that he was going out by the road to take the things to work and then call me," Sabrina Thompson told The Gleaner yesterday.

But her husband and the father of her three children did not make it to work. Mr. thompson also had a son from a previous relationship.

A report from the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said the shooting occurred about 9:40 a.m., just a little over an hour after three children and two adults were shot and injured in nearby Vineyard Town. The police are yet to establish whether the two incidents are related.

Mr. Thompson, who was 37 was standing just a stone's throw away from his house when he was murdered. The CCN's metro officer said that Mr. Thompson was approached by two men on a motorcycle. The men pulled handguns and opened fire on him. Mr. Thompson was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies where he was pronounced dead.

Twins mourn

When The Gleaner visited the couple's home, Mrs. Thompson and her eight-year-old twin boys, Shaquille and Akeil, were weeping openly as a gospel song played in the background. The boys had just come home from school. When asked if they knew what happened to their father, one of the boys said, "him dead" as he battled back the tears. Mr. Thompson's 13-year-old son and the couple's 18-month-old daughter were not home at the time of the visit.

Mrs. Thompson told our news team that she was at her church sister's house when she heard the shots. She told The Gleaner that she ran from the house with the solemn hope that it was not her husband who was shot. But when she reached the scene her worst fears were confirmed, as she saw her husband lying in his own blood. Mrs. Thompson explained that her husband was waiting on a van so that he could take his tools with him. "When I saw him, I cried out and say why this, because he is an innocent person, because he is not fighting any war and not firing any gun," she said.

She added: "The last thing I said to him was hold on, Rohan, hold on. You can't go weh leave we. What am I going to do with the four children: Shaquille, Akeil, Christopher and Sushanie, what are we going to do?"

However, Mr. Thompson was unable to respond to his wife's desperate pleas. "He didn't respond, his eyes were just opened and him just looking, looking, he did not say anything."

Bartholomew Webber, pastor of the church the couple attended, questioned when the madness would end. "You keep wondering when the violence is going to end. It breaks one's heart to know that life that is so important is just being snuffed out like that," he said.

The man of the cloth pledged to stand by the grieving family and also promised to provide counselling.