St. Thomas boy, 14, dies from apparent suicide

 

A student of a St. Thomas high school reportedly took his life following a dispute with his father over a bicycle on Thursday afternoon.

 

He is 14-year-old Lamar Hall, of Ramble in the parish.

 

Recalling his last moment with his son, Gary Hall told Radio Jamaica News that his son came home some time after 3 o'clock.

 

Mr. Hall said about 4 o'clock his son attempted to leave the yard with a bicycle that had a malfunctioning brake.

 

The father said that started the dispute. 

 

"He fumbled and he said he wasn't going away with any bicycle, he was just looking at something. I say he wasn't looking at anything he was just going away with the bicycle and I get to him and he went back with the bicycle and put it down." 

 

"I say go and find something and do, because you always come in and want to go on the road each time you come from school. I told him he could take the broom and sweep up a part of the yard or something because that's the way I tried to grow him that he learned to do something," the father recounted. 

 

According him, Lamar supposedly left the home and went down the road to his mother's house. After not seeing Lamar return the night, he suspected that he stayed at his mother's house.

 

About 7:30 a.m. Friday morning, a cousin, who was going to the river behind the house, saw Lamar's body hanging from a tamarind tree.

 

An alarm was raised and the police called.