On Monday, four-year-old Kahden Patterson’s laughter rang through the air at his birthday celebration.
But just hours later, his charming personality was silenced by a merciless act of violence. Young Kahden, his mother Nicola James, grandmother Nicola Clarke and his aunt Sora White, died after their home in Central Village, St Catherine, was firebombed. In another incident 24 hours earlier, another house was set ablaze, and one man found behind it with gunshot and chop wounds.
Senior Superintendent Hopeton Nicholson of the St Catherine South Police Division said investigators theorise that both arson attacks were acts of reprisal for an incident on Sunday in which a woman was shot in the mouth and hospitalised. A tearful relative told THE STAR about Kahden’s joyful spirit during his birthday festivities.
“He was having fun with his friends,” the relative recalled. “After he cut the cake, he gave a piece to everyone present at the party, including the adults. It is a very, very sad day for us… . It is sad to know that we will not be able to see him grow and become a man.”
At Solid Foundation Kindergarten, where Kahden was a beloved student, his absence cast a heavy pall over the classroom. His teacher, struggling to contain her emotions, described him as “a very loving student” with a contagious kindness.
“Kahden was always helpful to others,” she said, her voice cracking. She opted to write the rest of her words on a piece of paper.
“When he spoke, you had to smile… He was definitely on his way to the top,” she wrote.
Superintendent Dennis Lyons, overseeing operations at the St Catherine Fire Brigade, said the Spanish Town unit was alerted about 1:44 a.m.
“A unit was dispatched immediately, and upon arrival, requested additional support due to the scale of the blaze,” he stated. During cooling down operations, firefighters discovered the bodies of three of the victims on the verandah of the three-bedroom dwelling. The body of Sora, a student at Jose Marti Technical High School, was found in the bathtub.
“After the fire was brought under control and cooling down measures implemented, the team entered the building and the body of a female was seen in the bathtub. That seems as if she ran from the blaze and was trying to assist herself by dousing [her body] with water but it seems as if she was overcome by the heat or smoke,” Lyons said.
Sora was remembered as being polite and well-mannered in the community. As news of her tragic passing reached the school, Principal Austin Wright grappled with the difficult task of informing the student body.
“We are just getting the information,” he explained. “We have found that one of our students is not here today.”
Sora stood out as being kind and protective, particularly to her young nephew Kahden. Relatives of the victims expressed profound shock and disbelief at the senseless loss of their loved ones.
“Mi a look fi see her come back yesterday and mi nuh see her, til mi hear say she dead,” lamented Vashti Clarke, Clarke’s stepmother. Residents in a neighbouring community, where the victims were well-regarded, expressed confusion at the inexplicable targeting of the women, who were known for their kindness and maternal instincts.
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