On a quiet, somber Saturday at the Cave Hill campus of The University of the West Indies, the air hung heavy with unspeakable sorrow as faculty, staff and fellow students came together for a moving walk and vigil to honor Daquan Roberts, a promising law student whose life was cut short in a recent fatal shooting.
The pain of the loss was palpable across every corner of the gathering, reaching its most raw and heart-wrenching moment when Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law Dr. Ronnie Yearwood delivered a tribute that left him overcome with emotion. Struggling to steady his voice through tears, Dr. Yearwood reflected on the cruel turn of fate that flipped what should have been a joyful milestone for the law school into a period of devastating collective mourning.
“This year was supposed to be a celebration — of life, of our students, of the graduation of a new cohort,” he said, his frame visibly shaken by grief. “For every educator who walks this campus, our students are not just names on a class roster. They are people we grow to care for deeply; over time, they become extensions of our own families, as much our children as the ones we raise at home.”
Dr. Yearwood went on to speak to the one-of-a-kind, unbreakable bond that forms between legal educators and the students they mentor. The Faculty of Law, he explained, does not merely teach statutes and case law — its core mission is to nurture young minds and guide the next generation of legal leaders to live out core values of justice and integrity. That close, nurturing work, he said, makes this senseless loss cut even deeper, leaving the entire department fractured on a deeply personal level.
“I truly do not have the words to capture how sad and broken I feel, how broken all of us are here,” he said. “As a father to a son myself, I cannot begin to fathom the agony that Daquan’s family is carrying right now. I am so, so, so sorry for your unbearable loss.”
For the entire duration of the remembrance event, that heavy, muted grief hung over the entire campus. Even senior faculty leadership, accustomed to stepping forward to steady the community in difficult times, struggled to find language that could match the depth of loss shared by every member of the UWI Cave Hill family.