IN JAMAICA (FRIGHTENING & SAD STORY): Mom says police aware suspect using her murdered son, 18 y-o Rashidi Samuda's phone — even replacing victim's WhatsApp photo with his...."I went to KPH right away, and when I asked the nurse what happen, she said 'don't ask me any question',"

 Sunday, November 30, 2014 

IT'S been five months since Maureen Brown's 18-year-old son Rashidi Samuda was brutally slaughtered by a bunch of thugs in Jones Town.

The criminals, he told her before he died, said they wanted his cellphone.

Mom's sadness

But, as if the savagery of their actions was not painful enough, Brown — who said she is still receiving counselling — has been trying to control the anger she is feeling from knowing that the police have a photo of a suspect in her son's murder, but have done nothing to apprehend him.

According to the distraught mother, the suspect is still using her son's phone, and doesn't seem to be fearful about doing so, as he has replaced Rashidi's WhatsApp profile photo with his.

Even worse is Brown's complaint that a female detective sergeant at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station admitted to her sister that she knows the suspect because she had arrested him before for stealing.

The Jamaica Observer tried repeatedly to get in touch with the detective sergeant, but phones at the police station were either busy or rang unanswered.

At first glance, Brown's face seems expressionless. But on closer examination one can see that she is hurting. It's not difficult to understand why after one hears her heart-rending story.

Her quiet life was disrupted on the night of May 18 when, on returning home from watching a play at Little Theatre, Brown noticed that her son was not in the house.

That was approximately 9:00 pm.

18-year-old son Rashidi Samuda

"I asked his nephew for him and he said he (Rashidi) went to buy ice cream," Brown told the Sunday Observer. "Shortly after, when I turned the phone on, I received another call; it was from my son who said, 'Maureen, dem stab me up'," she related.

The young man told her he was at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and she left home immediately to get there.

"I went to KPH right away, and when I asked the nurse what happen, she said 'don't ask me any question'," Brown alleged.

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