Wanted man urged by family members to surrender after house was firebombed, shot-up

Fortunately no one was hurt.

Dawkins, 22, has his status adjusted from a being a “person of interest” to “wanted” by the Old Harbour police in connection with the discovery of a body found in the family yard believed to be that of 17-year-old Alicia Allen with whom he had an intimate relationship.

Both Dawkins and Allen, whose union produced baby girl now 19 months old, were last seen alive by relatives on September 7, before the body of the teen mother was discovered and subsequently unearthed from a shallow grave a week later.

Though family members are convinced that the body is that of Allen, formal confirmation is still outstanding pending a DNA analysis and postmortem.

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Blossom Howell, who is the mother of Dawkins, got home from work about 11 o’clock Wednesday night and was preparing to retire to bed when she was alerted by relatives to smoke coming from the house.

Their quick action stopped the fire from spreading, but moments later several gunshots rang out from outside. They took cover underneath the bed and even when the police arrived were unwilling to come out.

“It has been very difficult. We have young children there… and it has been a challenge.

“From the incident the children have not been eating, we ourselves are not eating. We just pick, pick around just to stay alive.

“This is a near-death experience, we could have died last night,” Stepahnie Perry told Old Harbour News in an interview this afternoon at the Old Harbour Police Station where they spent most of the day following the very frightening and scary ordeal.

Perry, who is Dawkins aunt and Howell’s sister, said it’s the worst time ever for the family since the death of their mother in February of this year. To compound her woes even more, Perry said she’s diabetic, hypertensive and was diagnosed two years ago with cancer.

Her stress and that of others, who were visibly in tears during the interview, is now unbearable.

“So we are appealing, we are begging you ‘Janno’ (Jermaine Dawkins), we a beg yuh, we a beg yuh, we a beg yuh from wi heart,” she stressed in her cry for Dawkins to surrender.

“‘Janno’ if you love yuh mada, even if you don’t care bout mi and the children dem, think about yuh mada… Walk in a di station or anyweh, or if you want to call yuh mada and tell har weh yuh deh, please mi a beg you to save us.”

They described Dawkins as an ambitious hard-working young man, whose presumed action is never one they would think in their wildest imagination he’s capable of plotting, moreso to act out.

Both mother and aunt confirmed with Old Harbour News that the young couple would oftentimes quarrel and fight, and would urge him to move on with his life and focus on taking care of his daughter.

Based on Howell’s observation her son was deeply in love with Allen and believes his action, however ill-advised, was in all likelihood a crime of passion.

Since the gruesome find, Howell said they have been receiving veiled, albeit indirect, threats which they did not take serious before now.

Now she said “last night experience made me feel very bad” and the entire family is extremely scared to return to the place they call home almost all their life.

“If dem did even a talk enuh, dem neva really come personal to we. But we hear people saying dem seh weh dem ago do,” claimed Howell in relation to the threats. She said she’s now “seriously” contemplating to resign from her job of 20 years as a pump attendant at a petrol station out of fear for her life.

“Him nuh tink about seh me in a di open air exposed to the good, bad and the indifferent,” Howell reasoned.

“Now all eight of us who live there our life is at risk. Our life is on the line. So me a beg you, me a plead with you, come give up yourself,” Perry added in another distressful plea to her nephew who she knows from the day he was born.

“Whatever you were thinking then, think differently now that you see the situation that you have put all of us into. Give up yourself to the law and your life too might just be saved.”

Meantime, commander in charge at the Old Harbour Police Station, DSP Damion Manderson said investigators are probing the latest incident, but so far have not been able to establish any lead that could enable them to make an arrest.

DSP Manderson is also urging members of the public with information on Dawkins’ whereabouts to contact the Old Harbour Police Station (876-983-2255), police emergency 119 or the nearest police station.