Howard Campbell, Gleaner WriterFOR GREG Hussey, it's hard to think of life without his older brother Damion. Perched on a makeshift bamboo seat in the front yard of the Golden Spring home they shared with two younger brothers, the grieving Greg remembered him as the glue that held the family together.
"Him a the greatest thing, dem man dey come in like a father to the whole a wi," said 20-year-old Greg.
Damion Hussey was killed on January 15 in the very yard Greg says he often counselled his brothers. He was allegedly murdered by a group of men who were returning from the launch of People's National Party leadership contender Dr. Peter Phillips' 'Solid As a Rock' campaign at the National Arena.
According to police reports, the killers were among a group of PNP supporters who had been pelted with stones in nearby Stony Hill. When they reached Golden Spring they retaliated by attacking several persons, one of them was Damion Hussey, who Greg says was eating supper at the time.
Superintendent Assan Thompson, Roy Boyd, head of the St. Andrew North Police Division which is investigating the homicide, told The Sunday Gleaner last week that no arrests have been made.
Damion Hussey's death triggered demonstrations throughout Golden Spring, where residents blocked roads. It was also condemned by Phillips who wrote a condolence letter to the Hussey family; the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson also commented on the tragic episode.
Although he was only 22, Damion Hussey made a mark in his community. With his father deceased and his mother living in the United Kingdom, the former Calabar High School student acted as parent to his brothers; he also made quite an impression at Edgechem Jamaica Limited where he worked for over two years as a shader.
"Seventy-five per cent of the people who came here for shading wanted Damion to work for them," his supervisor, Dwight Rumble, told The Sunday Gleaner. "He was a consistent and diligent worker ... always defending or debating some issue."
