A combined military and police operation in Spanish Town during an upsurge in violence in the Old Capital. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
HIS DEATH on June 11, 1993 sparked widespread grief and despair for his customers, business associates and friends. Today Errol Cann's business partner and mother of his two daughters, very young at the time, remembers that day just as clearly.
Cann, 41, was shot dead by three gunmen who robbed him of more than $500,000 along Adelaide Street in Spanish Town, while on his way to a bank.
His partner (name withheld) recalls her personal pain and that of other family members, including his four children, including two sons.
His elder son was in college abroad while the younger boy was about to do his CXC exams, she recalled. It was for the boys, she said, a moment of real crisis at these junctures in their lives.
As for her eight-year-old daughter, this was a vicious confirmation that the world was not all good. "The year before her playmate had also lost her dad to murderers, so she was devastated when it happened to her as well," she recalls with pain.
The little girl was also being called on to be brave in the face of such excruciating pain, for a special reason. Her father was slain on Friday and she was scheduled to have her first communion on Sunday; a service she had been looking forward to attending with his loving arms around her. "We had a hard time getting her to smile for the camera and eventually had to settle for a very small one, which is the memory we took away from that special occasion," her mother told The Sunday Gleaner.
DADDY GONE TO HEAVEN
The five-year-old, initially accepted the 'Daddy is gone to Heaven' explanation without questioning. But after a few weeks, it dawned on her that Daddy was gone for good, whereupon she climbed into her mother's lap, held her tight and implored "Mommy, I don't want you to die".
Errol Cann and his partner started the Spanish Town business together. She handled the backroom operation, keeping the books, while he was the front man, the face the public knew best. And it was a face that became well known, not only for the obligatory smile of a
businessman, but for his reach into the community where he sponsored many sporting events and supported several schools and gave favourable prices. The workers, she remembers were devastated "because he was well loved by them". Then there was the challenge of deciding to continue the business. "The hardest thing I ever did in my life was to go to work the following Monday morning. I was so afraid, but I had to just rely on God. I remember I used to take lunch for him in a big basket. When the workers saw me with the basket they just broke down and cried".
THINGS WOULD BE BETTER
Today, 12 and a half years later, with many more murders committed in Spanish Town since then, Cann's partner believes Spanish Town would have been better off had he not been slain. "Things would be better, because he was able to interact with the community. He was a people person and he would sit outside, greet the people who would chat to him and he would give advice to the youngsters. He was good for the community," she asserts, her voice trailing off as a flood of memories come rushing back.
