ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

When Kerry* was pregnant, she had a vision that she should name her daughter Heaven, and she did just that. She believes the name is divine and that it may have been instrumental in saving the baby who was shot threes when she was eight months old.

At the time of the incident in 2018, Heaven was home with her mother and grandmother when gunmen invaded the tenement yard in which they lived. The cowards fired at the people in the yard, hitting at least four of them. Two of the bullets are still lodged inside Heaven's tiny frame.

"Everytime I look at my daughter I know it is just a blessing that she is alive today," Kerry told THE STAR. "Everytime when I think about what happened, I cry. When I watched the news and see a child gets killed I cry because I know that could have been my Heaven, and I know I couldn't survive without my baby at all. I still get nightmares and I can't imagine ever burying my child," the mother added.

The year Heaven was shot, Jamaica recorded 1,287 murders, which was 22 per cent less than the 1,641 murders observed in 2017. These statistics are not mere numbers for Kerry. She said that the haunting images of what transpired on February 18, 2018 in a Corporate Area community remains fresh in her mind.

Two men walking towards us

"It was about after 11 in the night and about 15 of us were on the varendah because a guy used to sell food from the yard. We were there and we saw two men walking towards us in the yard, but I thought they were coming to buy something. At first they looked in the crowd as if they were looking for a specific person, and then they just started shooting. My daughter got shot in her back, one on her buttocks and another in the thigh. I got shot in my side and elbow. My mother, sister and a few other persons got shot also," she said.

Kerry said that at the time, neither she nor her mother knew they were hit. Their focus was on Heaven.

"I remember just grabbing up my baby and running down the street and I never stopped running until I saw a police vehicle. My baby was blocking out a little and I was terrified. They took us to KPH (Kingston Public Hospital) and then the children's hospital (Bustamante Hospital for Children). en I was at Children's one of the doctor's asked me why my dress was ripped open and even when I saw the blood running down, I thought it belonged to my daughter, but afterward I saw the hole in my side," Kerry recounted.

Her injuries were not life-threatening. Heaven spent three days in the hospital. The doctors, however, decided against attempting to remove two of the bullets that lodged in his body -- the one in her buttocks and the one in her thigh.

Kerry said that she had problems getting Heaven enrolled in school because administrators were afraid of taking her due to the lodged bullets.

"Thankfully, she is in school now. She still feels a lot of pain and I notice the area is getting black so I would want to have them remove, but I can't afford the operation now," she said.

The 22-year-old mother said she is concerned about her only child living a normal life, as she often asks about the scars on her body.

"If she sees a police or soldier pass she will run and cry and I have to tell her that it's not them that shot her, and they are not the enemy," the mother said.

* Name changed to protect identity.