A 16-year-old boy has died in Jamaica after reportedly being attacked by a shark while spearfishing.
On Monday, Aug. 26, Jahmari Reid, of Falmouth, Trelawny, went into the water alone, before his decapitated body was found the following day, per local media outlets Jamaica Observer, Loop Jamaica News, and the Jamaica Star.
The teenager was a grade 10 student at William Knibb Memorial High School, and was getting ready to go into grade 11, his mother, Lavern Robinson, told the Jamaica Star.
“Right now [I] don’t know what to say. Jahmari has been going to sea from him small,” she added to the publication.
The outlet reported Jahmari’s head and left hand had been bitten off in the attack.
Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Trelawny Police Division, and William Knibb High School did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Reynolds said he’d been told a “big” tiger shark had been spotted in the water near where Jahmari’s body was located, but divers hadn’t managed to catch the animal, the outlet stated.
“I can’t believe he went to sea alone… and that was the outcome. Sad to know. I feel so bad,” Jahmari’s father, Michael Reid, told the publication.
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Another fisherman told Loop Jamaica News, “I have been fishing for years and this never happened in Falmouth. If you are spearfishing and have a string of fish and a shark start circling let go of the string and give him.”
President of Falmouth Fisherfolks Benevolent Society, Fritz Christie, said this was the first time in recent history that a person had been killed in the Trelawny area, per the Jamaica Observer. Christie thinks the shark might have followed a cruise ship in, and “did not leave the area,” the outlet reported.
Jahmari’s school’s vice principal, Audrey Steele, described the late teen as “just a quiet boy,” per the Jamaica Star.
“He has never been before me for any disciplinary problem,” she told the outlet.
