SUICIDE IN JAMAICA: 'Mi tired fi live' Cabbie drives to Kingston Harbour, jumps to his death

BY SHARLENE HENDRICKS Observer staff reporter hendrickss@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, December 24, 2019

The taxi driven by Lloyd Smith, with a suitcase of clothes
 on the back seat, is seen at the end of Hanover Street in
downtown Kingston where Smith jumped into Kingston
 Harbour and died. (Photo: Norman Thomas)

Lloyd Smith's last words to his neighbour on Sunday night were chilling.

“Mi just waan kill miself, mi tired fi live,” the neighbour, who gave her name only as Wendy, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

According to Wendy, she tried to dissuade the 62-year-old taxi driver, who operated on the Waltham Park Road to downtown Kingston route, from killing himself. She even pleaded with him to talk to the police.

“Nuh wait till yuh dead yuh mek people a wonder,” she recalled telling him.

Her words, though, had no effect on Smith as yesterday he drove the taxi to the end of Hanover Street, at the Kingston waterfront, and jumped into the choppy Caribbean Sea as heavy showers and strong winds swept through that section of the capital city.

When the Observer visited the location, investigators from the Central Investigation Bureau of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) reported that the police received a 119 call and minutes later, around 7:00 am, Smith's car was found with a suitcase of clothes on the back seat. His body was found floating in the water.

An Observer source, who identified herself as Smith's close friend, told the newspaper that he was having domestic problems with his common-law wife with whom he lived on Grassquit Glade off Woodpecker Avenue in St Andrew.