As investigations continue into the fatal Port Mourant Market robbery, which left 18-year-old bandit Parmand Pertab dead and another suspect on the run, the teenager’s mother, Aruna Archer-John, is grappling with the loss of her son. She revealed that her son had left their Hampshire Village home early that Saturday morning, intending to go to work. Unbeknownst to her, it would be the last time she would see him alive.
The heartbroken mother recounted the tragic sequence of events, sharing that after briefly returning home to use the washroom, her son, known as “Mikey,” left again. Around 9:00 a.m., she received a phone call from her husband informing her that their son had been severely beaten by a group of men. At the time, she was unaware that Mikey had been involved in a robbery that targeted a jeweler inside the Port Mourant Market.
By the time she rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital, her son had already succumbed to his injuries. Archer-John tearfully recalled how he had been left helpless after the mob attack. “They left my pickney on the ground,” she cried. “Them police pick him up and throw him in the pickup, and my husband followed behind. When they reached the hospital, there was no one to help carry him, so my husband had to put him on the stretcher himself.”
Struggling through tears, Archer-John condemned the brutal beating that took her son’s life, arguing that he did not deserve such an end. “Nobody is perfect. They could have caught him and given him over to the police. He could have gone to jail, and maybe he would have changed. But they took my baby’s life.”
The grieving mother expressed her outrage at the vigilante justice. “Nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands,” she said. Based on videos circulating online, she claims to have identified the man who delivered the fatal blow to her son while he was unarmed.
Archer-John shared that her son had recently been following bad company, which she believed led him down the wrong path. She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, he dropped out of school and began distancing himself from family. “I don’t know what sweetness he found with those friends he called ‘company,’ but since then, things changed. He left home and only returned about a month ago.”
Reflecting on her upbringing and her own values, she said, “I grew up not troubling anyone, and I taught my children the same. I would take them to church. But somewhere along the way, people strayed my son, and I couldn’t bring him back.”
The police report reveals that Mikey and another man attacked a jewelry shop inside the market at around 9:15 a.m. Pertab, armed with a cutlass, assaulted the jeweler’s assistant, while his accomplice, armed with a handgun, ordered the victims to lie on the ground. The pair then looted jewelry and fled. However, their escape was interrupted by market vendors and passersby who confronted them. The accomplice discharged three rounds, injuring one man, before fleeing.
Pertab, armed with the stolen jewelry, was cornered by the crowd and disarmed. The mob then beat him severely, leaving him with multiple wounds to his body. Police arrived at the scene and recovered the stolen items, which were handed over by the crowd.
Both Pertab and the injured bystander, Mark Lovell, were taken to the Port Mourant Hospital. Lovell was treated for gunshot wounds and discharged himself, while Pertab succumbed to his injuries.
A post-mortem is pending, and police continue to investigate the incident. Pertab’s mother, while acknowledging that her son had recently been associating with the wrong crowd, lamented his tragic path. “I know he did wrong, and I’m sorry for what he did. But nobody had the right to kill him.”
