Three hours before murdered son’s funeral

Three hours before Maria Farrel of Cocorite was due to attend the funeral of her murdered son Kevin Huggins, 19, she collapsed at her home, was rushed to the nearby Cocorite Community Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. The death of Maria Farrel hit Harding Place, Cocorite, where she lived, hard, as her husband, children and relatives were all treated for shock. The murder of her youngest son was said to be too much for the 48-year old mother of four. “She stopped eating and was never herself,” said a relative who was preparing for the family’s second funeral yesterday adding that Farrel never got a chance to bury her son, but instead joined him in death.

Mourners at Kevin Huggins’ funeral, which was held at the West Wind pan yard on Monday, were shocked when Bishop Lionel Callender broke the news to them around 1 pm that Kevin’s mother had died. “Not even a pindrop could be heard,” said Cynthia Joseph, Farrel’s mother. She told Newsday that when Kevin and Dennison Campbell were found dead at Freedom Street in Cocorite last Tuesday, her daughter could not accept the death of her son insisting that she was dreaming. “My daughter was loved and respected by everyone in Cocorite, and her death was unexpected,” said Joseph who was consoled by friends and relatives at her home yesterday.

Around 1.30 am last Tuesday, Kevin and Campbell were asleep at a house at Freedom Street, Cocorite, when two gunmen entered the house and shot Huggins who was asleep in a chair. Alerted by the noise, Campbell shoved his girlfriend and two children under a bed, grabbed Huggins’ gun and opened fire. The invading gunmen returned fire hitting Campbell several times. He was shot nine times while Huggins shot five times. Anthony Campbell was inconsolable when told that his wife had died and remains in a state of shock. Funeral arrangements for Farrel are yet to be finalised. Concerned residents of Cocorite will hold a march against crime this afternoon from the West Wind pan yard, Cocorite.