FLEMMINGS. described as brilliant and very bright

Andrea Flemmings-Beaufort had a lot of hope for her 15 year-old son Jordano. "He was such a brilliant boy, very bright," she told the Observer yesterday, adding that she had been saving to send Jordano to England to further his education.

But Flemmings-Beaufort's plans crashed Saturday night when her son fell victim to a thief who stabbed the Mona High School student on Bougainvillea Drive, Mona, near his home.

Jordano Flemmings, 15, thus became the sixth child murdered in Jamaica in under a week.

Jordano, the Observer was told yesterday, was on his way home from a church social in Liguanea. Walking home from church wasn't unusual for the teen. On Saturday, he was accompanied by a friend.

Passing a bus stop on the way, Flemmings and his friend caught sight of a lone male figure perched dauntingly on one of the rails. Not one to be easily intimidated, according to his mother, Jordano casually pressed on, his friend following his lead.

Shortly after turning onto Bougainvillea Drive at about 8:00 pm, the boys were startled by the man they had passed at the bus stop. He was waving a knife in their faces and demanding their possessions. Fearing for his life, Jordano's friend ran as fast as he could. Jordano, however, decided to stare down the thief, refusing to give him anything.

The criminal, apparently angered by the 15 year-old's defiance, plunged his knife into the boy's chest, killing him on the spot.

By the time Jordano's friend returned, the 15-year-old's lifeless body was sprawled on the pavement.

"He was a good boy," a friend of the family, who was helping to comfort Jordano's mother, told the Observer yesterday at the family home.

"He never mixed with any gangs or violence or anything like that. He was coming from church, so that can tell you what kind of boy he was," the man added.

Jordano's mother had a vacant stare. She described her son as an exceptional student. "He wasn't involved in any kind of thing. He was such a brilliant boy, very bright," she said.

The teen's murder follows that of six-year-old Levana Gordon last Thursday night and those of Jessie Ogilvie, 9, Sean Chin, 8, and Lloyd McCool, 3, on February 26 in St Thomas. Another child victim of those gruesome St Thomas murders, six-year-old Jhaid McCool, was found last Thursday in St Mary. The time of her death has not yet been established by the Observer.

Levana Gordon lost her life at about 10:30 pm when gunmen sprayed her father's silver Honda Integra with bullets as they drove along the pitch dark Hartlands main road, St Catherine. Levana, who was asleep during the ambush, received several shots to her chest. She died instantly.

The children killed in St Thomas were all members of one family. Their throats, along with those of their mother, Farika Martin-McCool and her aunt, Terry-Ann 'Teenie' Mohammed, were also slashed.

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