Eight Years Later: Vigil For Shaundae Jones

Eight years ago today [Apr.27], 20-year old Shaundae Jones was fatally shot after leaving a nightclub in Dockyard. His murder remains unsolved. Tonight at 8pm there will be a vigil at the Rubber Tree in Warwick in his memory.

In the early hours of Sunday, April 27 2003, Mr. Jones travelled with friends by car to Club Malabar in Dockyard.

He left the nightclub at 3 am and made his way back to the car when an assailant walked through the crowd and shot him once in the chest.

The shooter then made his way back through the crowd and escaped the scene on a motorcycle. According to Crimestoppers, “the murder was witnessed by numerous people who collectively describe the offender as a dark skinned male of thin build, at least 6’3″ tall, wearing a red top with a hood and a black crash helmet.”

A graduate of the Bermuda Institute, Mr. Jones went away to Rhode Island to study electrical engineering, later returning to study at the Bermuda College. He had offered to come home to assist his mother financially after his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

After his murder, Mr. Jones’ grandmother couldn’t quite comprehend why he was absent and kept asking his mother why he wasn’t coming to see her. She passed away a few months after her grandson, on her daughter’s birthday. She was buried close to her grandson. Ms Jones describes that period of her life as horrible, like she “woke up one day and everyone was gone”

Ms Jones said her son was a “people person” who loved to hang out and socialize. She says she misses him, and although its been eight years since his murder, sometimes “it feels like eight minutes”. She described his birthday, date of death and Mothers Day as being especially hard for her each year.

Mr. Jones was her only child, and she herself is an only child. So with no siblings, nieces, nephews or grandchildren, she said his death was like an end of an era for her family, a situation she described as heartbreaking.

She said she is still waiting and hoping for justice.  Ms Jones remains in regular contact with the Police who, she said, had called her already today. She spoke very highly of John Henley, a British officer no longer with the Bermuda Police Service, who worked on the investigation into her son’s murder. Pleased by a spate of recent convictions for those involved in gun violence, Ms Jones said she hopes to see justice done one day in the court system, believing a successful prosecution might provide a measure of closure.

Mr. Jones’ brutal 2003 murder was a rarity in Bermuda at the time. Speaking of the spree of killings  in recent years, Ms Jones said: “Its horrible — they are assassinating each other. A mother has to go home and see her son’s toothbrush, his wash cloth that might still be wet. It torments me. It’s horrible. It’s a full stop to this young mans life.

“I recall washing Shaundae’s clothes in the hamper. I just didn’t know what to do, those little things can be so painful to a parent. I know each step these poor people have to go through. I have sympathy as its not a nice place to be, and you never leave it.”

“I am not the same person I was eight years ago, as you have to learn to cope with life in a different way. I am glad I had him for 20 years, I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

Ms Jones said, “I need justice … I have lost everything else.”

The investigation remains open, and anyone with any information about the murder of Shaundae Jones is asked to contact the Serious Crime Unit on 299-8115 or the independent, confidential Crime Stoppers Bermuda hotline on 800-8477 (TIPS).

Colford’s Family Against Violence will be hosting the vigil this evening at the Rubber Tree parking lot next to Warwick Post Office starting at 8pm. The wider community is invited to attend.

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