With tears streaming down their faces, more than 10 members of the McIntosh and Hepburn families waited patiently outside the Princess Margaret Hospital's Rand Laboratory in the sweltering heat yesterday to identify the body of Alexander Hepburn - one of the two men murdered Friday night.

According to police, Hepburn was standing in front of a building on Alexandria Boulevard shortly before 10 p.m. when a gunman shot him multiple times.  He died at the scene.  His killing was recorded by police as murder 87 this year.  Minutes after the shooting his brother Mark McIntosh said he received an urgent message summoning him to meet his mother in Nassau Village.
When he heard his brother was shot, McIntosh recalled that his reaction was that he should be taken to a hospital.  He was then told that Hepburn was dead.

"Words can't describe that feeling.  Words can't describe the emptiness that leaves," he said.
Though Hepburn lived in the Mount Tabor area, his brother said they grew up in Nassau Village.
"My family had roots in Nassau Village for years and my brother worked at the establishment he was shot down in the front of.  So he had actually just left home, went out there to be by the place where he worked and some guy just ran up to him and ambushed him and shot and killed him dead," McIntosh said.

Hepburn, who turned 30 years old last month, leaves behind four young children, his family said.
The two mothers of his children stood side by side with tears streaming down their faces as relatives waited outside the morgue.  One of the women, Davinia Coakley, broke down as she recalled trying to explain to her one-year-old daughter that she would never see her father again.
"My baby only one and she calling out for her daddy, but I tell her daddy is in a safe place.  He's up in heaven," she said.

She described Hepburn as a good father who loved all of his children unconditionally.  His brother acknowledged the numerous other families who are grieving the loss of relatives to violence and he called on the government to help stop the bloodshed.  "Our country is in trouble and we don't seem to have a solution," McIntosh said.

"With one act of Parliament these guys can effectively amend the Bail Act so that murderers don't get bail and then they can limit the appeal process to the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal so once these guys go as high as the Court of Appeal, that's it.  "So I appeal to the government, I appeal to the prime minister, please do something.  Our country is in trouble.  Young men are dying and it will only take you guys in the House of Assembly to fix this."
Anthro Knowles, 36, of Rockcrusher was shot to death earlier Friday night in a separate incident in that community.

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