Three years may have gone by since Wentworth Ebanks’ only son Darrington was gunned down while hanging out with friends on Christmas Day, but the pain of that loss still remains fresh in the West Bay father’s memory.
In this week’s Cayman Compass Cold Case Files, in partnership with the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, Ebanks reflects on his son’s murder and his family’s need for closure.
A feeling of dread
Every day, Wentworth Ebanks faces a reminder of his son’s murder, as the site where the young father-of-two took his last breath is mere yards from his home.
Looking back, Ebanks said, he always had a bad feeling about that spot.
“As life goes on, you watch your children, and you can mostly tell some time if he’s gonna make it or he’s not, which I felt he [Darrington] wasn’t going to make it for long. I always had that feeling, so I keep warning… ‘Keep away from that crowd out there, keep away from that shop, Darrington… It keeps coming to me, repeating it without me saying it,” Ebanks said as he spoke with the Compass about his loss.
The younger Ebanks, just 29 years old at the time, was killed in the early hours of 25 Dec. 2018.
At approximately 1:15am, Darrington was with friends in the Boatswain Bay area of West Bay, a short distance from his home, between King Road and Fountain Road, when he and another man clashed.
The man reportedly returned with a gun and started firing at Darrington, who died at the scene.
Wentworth was asleep at his home, a stone’s throw away.
He said he was jarred from his sleep by a neighbour who called out to him saying his son was shot.
At first, he said, he did not believe it and went back to sleep. He was again alerted by a neighbour, who “licked my window really hard… bam, bam. He say, ‘Boss, your son is shot dead.’ So that’s when I jumped up and I said, ‘Well, this is no new dream, this is real’.”
Wentworth, who was recovering from hernia surgery at the time, said he “sort of crawled out” of his home, and was stunned by what he saw outside.
“I looked down… there he was, laying on the ground… blood all over. So I said in the crowd ‘Did anyone see anything?’ No one answered.”
While there, he said, a young woman dropped to her knees screaming and said she would tell him who had done it, but she was hushed by someone in the crowd who told police she was intoxicated.
To this day, he said, he wished he had stopped his son from leaving home that evening because he had an uneasy feeling.
Hours before Darrington was killed, he said, his son passed by his window on his way out to the spot where he would get shot.
At that time, he said, a feeling came over him to tell Darrington to stay at home and not go out, but he did not say anything. He said that regret still bothers him.
A man planning for his future
Wentworth said his son was a good man who always kept himself busy with work, who had applied for and been approved for government housing, and who was moving forward with securing his own property.
“He had a great plan for his life. He was on it, he was on it. He was so bored when he never had a job. He was just miserable… He had just picked up a job [for] a year and one month, and he was going on good. He was very smart, he had great interest in his future.
“He was trying to provide for his kids,” he said.
He said his son was a quick study and smart, and he’d had high hopes for him.
“He went to school. I got him graduated from high school…Anything you come with, he could sort you out… figuring it… reading it,” he said.
He said Christmas is always a difficult time for him and will never be the same.
“Every time Christmas come, my heart get big… It’s kinda sorrowful to watch your loved ones, just watch them in blood… it’s very hurtful,” he said, as he paused.
He pleaded with the community to help him get justice for his son and his two grandsons who will have to grow up without their father’s love and guidance.
“Justice for Darrington… I want it all. He never really deserved death,” he said.
Anyone with information relating to Darrington Ebanks’s murder or any of the cases in this series can call the Serious Crime Review Team confidential tip line at 649-2930
A suspect was held in the Darrington Ebanks murder case, but the case did not go to trial due to a lack of evidence.
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