Father of suspected suicide victim lost about circumstances surrounding son’s death

- by Anesta Henry May 31, 2023

FATHER OF SUSPECTED SUICIDE VICTIM LOST ABOUT CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING SON’S DEATH

By Anesta Henry

A grieving David Taylor is struggling to understand the circumstances surrounding the death of his son Akeem Taylor, who was found hanging from the ceiling of his Ellis Village, St Michael, home on Monday night.
Taylor said he was afraid that he would never find the answer to why his first-born, whom he raised from a toddler, appeared to have taken his own life, leaving his two children – a one-year-old and a seven-year-old – fatherless.
He told Barbados TODAY that as far as he was aware, Ackeem, who was scheduled to start training soon as a recruit with the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), had no major problems going on in his life.
“He had little small issues, though. Something happened with one of his cousins’ mother who got a stroke and then she went back home, and then she came back and she was in the hospital, and her son came here yesterday crying. So that little depression is the only depression that he really had in between there that I really know about.
“But he lived with me for years and he didn’t tell me anything, so I don’t know anything. As far as I know, he was always good from a baby. He ain’t give me no information, he ain’t tell me he had a problem with a woman. He does work with me painting, he does get money, he does get girls, he does get everything going on. I am clueless,” he said.
Taylor recalled that he last saw his son at home around 2:35 p.m. on Monday when he informed him that he was leaving to go to work.
Taylor pointed out that Akeem’s mother and other siblings also had difficulty understanding what could have led to the demise of the young man who would have celebrated his 26th birthday on July 29.
“Everybody in shock because nobody knows what happened. There is nobody to blame,” Taylor said as he sat under a tamarind tree close to his home, reflecting on the life of his son.
“It ain’t nothing that I could do now; it happened and gone. The Father got to handle it from here. I only hope that the Father will forgive him. When I got there, he was done gone, there is nothing that I could have done. But that is just how life is and how it plays out sometimes.”
Taylor said his son had informed him that from next month, he would return to the BDF’s recruitment programme. He explained that the young man, who attended Erdiston Primary School and St Leonard’s Boys’ Secondary School, was enrolled in the programme before but had to withdraw because he was medically unfit.
“He was a lively youth, you know, he was doing certain things. He was happy, and he was going back into the BDF. I don’t know what it is that was going on in his head, but whatever happened, that is just how it played out. Life is hard,” Taylor said.
“This is hard, but I have to be strong. I have four children and one gone, but I can’t shut my eyes and lie down because one gone, because the other three would suffer. I got to try to hold that balance. I got to be firm because that is what he would have expected me to do anyhow.”
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