Grief deepens in Denham Town after double tragedy

Though the tiny waistband of her son's brief was stiff with dried blood, and the bullet holes still visible, Ladonia Cunningham tied it around her head like a crown of grief.

It was the last thing her three-year-old son, Jace 'Zaza' Pinnock, ever wore. The toddler was cut down by gunmen during Saturday's brutal 1:40 a.m. home invasion along Nelson Street in Denham Town. Then on Monday, Cunningham's pain doubled. Thirty-one-year-old Kiero Pinnock, the child's father, succumbed to injuries he sustained in the attack. The couple's other son, who is eight, was also grazed by a bullet.

When THE STAR visited the community on Tuesday, the usually lively inner-city lanes were unusually scanty. A police vehicle patrolled slowly through the area as small clusters of residents gathered near the family's home. Music drifted through the tense air - songs including When the Last Tear Drop Falls and Missing You matching the mood of disbelief and sorrow. This was not the first time Cunningham was navigating motherhood through loss.

"It ruff, it ruff," she said, adjusting the blood-marked garment. "Mi other babyfather died last year, but mi strong. Mi just a fight it because mi have four more kids fi stand up by dem side without a father. God a help me fight a battle."

She explained that Pinnock had stepped into the role of father for her two older children after their biological father died. Pinnock also leaves behind a baby he had with another woman who was born 10 days before his death.

"Him do everything. Everything. The only thing mi really do sometimes a help press the uniform," said Cunningham.

Those close to him described him Pinnock as a young man who was deeply invested in his children and determined to provide. He operated a small business in the community.

Just a few feet away sat the mother of Pinnock's newborn, who will now grow up without knowing him.

"See him babymother deh. She just get a likkle baby, and yuh know seh the christening a go gwan, and him nah go get fi deh deh," Cunningham said quietly.

While Cunningham wrestled with her own grief, other family members had clung to hope that Pinnock would survive.

"It hard. It shocking," said her sister, Shadeem. "After day one we say yes, him a go pull through, and at least my sister would have some form of comfort." She said that the home invasion has left children across the community "traumatised".

"Everybody a fret and a wonder if dem a go come inna dem house, too," she said. "We have the ZOSO here and police patrol every day. But not even that is assurance fi we safety."