BY KARYL WALKER Editor - Crime/Court Desk walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com Thursday, July 17, 2014
RESIDENTS of Savannah in Hayes, Clarendon are challenging the police's version of events which led to the fatal shooting of Donovan Stewart in the Mandeville hospital on Tuesday morning.
Police reported that Stewart attacked a patient and was in the process of strangling him when a nurse and another patient rushed to help.
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| Novlette Anderson (centre), cousin of the deceased, makes a point while her son Daniel (left) and brother Gerald Stewart look on. (PHOTOS: GARFIELD ROBINSON) |
Stewart, police said, kicked the nurse and injured her before an officer who was guarding a prisoner on the ward rushed to the area where the commotion was unfolding and attempted to subdue Stewart.
However, the policeman was reportedly forced to open fire after Stewart attacked him with a Steinmann pin which he allegedly removed from his broken leg and attempted to use it to stab another patient, who had come to help.
The police said Stewart was shot in his leg by the policeman but became more infuriated and attempted to attack the lawman again before he was cut down.
However, residents of Savannah, including Stewart's cousin Novlette Anderson, said he was not a violent man and had never had any history of mental illness.
The residents yesterday blocked a section of the Hayes main road to protest against the fatal shooting.
"Is wicked the police wicked. Him crash off him bike and him foot broke in three places. Him was never in any condition to walk much less fight anybody," Anderson said.
They also argue that no pin was inserted in Stewart's broken leg.
"Them never do any surgery on him yet. Him crash off the bike, we take him to Lionel Town Hospital but him had to be transferred to Mandeville because that is where the bone specialist is. He needed $60,000 to do the surgery and it never do yet , so how them say him take out pin out of him foot?" one angry resident asked.
The dead man's brother, Gerald Stewart, said his cousin had carried $30,000 to Stewart to assist him in paying the cost of the surgery and his brother had given the money to a nurse. more
As family members we would fail to believe that such sayings are not true. I family member on that ward in that same cubilce at the hospital and the man did try to stab an elderly man with the pin and in the process attacked patients and members of staff leaving everyone searching for answers as to what could have caused him to do such thing. on the other hand had not the police been there what would have happen? because I know for sure that many persons would have probably died considering the fact that is a surgical ward and many of the patients are helpless and cannot defend them selves .what if the officers did not make their move and allow him to carry on? what if he had killed someone? what then would we as?
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