Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

TO SAY it has been a traumatic year for Karlene Haughton would be an understatement.

In January 2007, she watched as divers pulled the bodies of her two young sons from the Rio Cobre in St Catherine.

On Sunday, Haughton will attend the funeral for Kwesi Cunningham, the second of her five children. Twenty three-year-old Cunningham was one of five men controversially killed by security forces in the west Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens on January 13.

"She not eating, she taking it real hard," Haughton's 19-year-old-daughter, Shauna-Lee Cunningham, told The Gleaner.

On January 18 last year, Haughton's two youngest children, 10-year-old Ikel Henry and seven-year-old Shadder Henry, drowned in the Rio Cobre.

The tragic incident tugged at the heartstrings of those who followed it, but ambiguity surrounds the death of their older brother.

Fired on by gunmen

Inspector Steve Brown of Operation Kingfish was one of the senior officers in the Tivoli operation. He said the police went into west Kingston looking for wanted men but, as they entered Tivoli Gardens, they were fired on by gunmen in a house at Keith Avenue.

The men, including Cunningham, were killed. Police say seven high-powered weapons were taken from the house.

Tivoli residents dispute the police report, saying the men were murdered.

Brown said none of the five men were being sought by the police.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who is Member of Parliament for the West Kingston constituency, has ordered a coroner's inquest into the shooting.

Public Defender Earl Witter visited the scene three days after the shooting. He has also called for an independent investigation.

Shauna-Lee Cunningham insists her brother was not a criminal. She said he lived in Eltham Park in Spanish Town and worked as a vendor, selling food items every Wednesday at Coronation Market in west Kingston.

His only link with the area, she said, was an aunt who lives there.

Cunningham said her mother has spoken to the police about the incident and will have further discussions with them following the funeral.