16 years of painful memories - Kraal resident says he escaped death by running through bushes

Sixteen years ago, the quiet community of Kraal was pushed into the spotlight when four persons, including two women, were killed by a special team led by former Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams.

Although the incident occurred more than a decade ago, the details of the incident will always be fresh in the mind of Rohan Thomas.

He told THE STAR that he and another man escaped death by running through bushes.

"Mi run go in the bush, and mi stop and hide, and mi never hear any scream or anything, so mi a say it look like everybody there dead. When mi look, mi see one a mi fren a run a come and say mi must run or mi a go dead, and mi start run again. The police dem did start run through the bush, and mi feel like if a never night, them woulda kill wi. Mi honestly did feel like me a go dead, " he said.

Thomas said that he waited a while before returning to the crime scene. He said that when he got there, his body got 'weak' when he heard a policeman giving instructions to one of his colleague to reverse the vehicle so that they could place the body of a female in it.

BODIES REMOVED

"That's when me realise say all a dem dead in the yard. Mi stand up a watch them a take the body dem. Some a di other police did have a light a shine in the house top. All some food weh we did cook, it come like dem eat it, because we never see none left in the pot," he said.

According to the police, 45-year-old Angella Richards, 38-year-old Ferris Lewena Thompson, Matthew James, and a man known only as 'Renegade' were killed on Tuesday, May 7, 2003, during a shoot-out with members of the Crime Management Unit (CMU). Two illegal firearms - a Taurus 9mm pistol with six cartridges and a Winchester rifle with 14 rounds - were seized.

After several weeks of investigations in the aftermath of the killings, Adams and five rank-and-file members of the police force were charged with murder. They were, however, acquitted in December 2005.

"All now mi still nuh overcome it, and mi remember how traumatised I was days after the incident. The room that they claimed they found the gun in belonged to an old man, but he was in town at the time. Anyhow the old man was here, him would dead too," he said.

Thomas also claims that the guns that were found in the house were actually brought there.

According to Thomas, some Kraal residents are still living in fear, and he claims that the community is still being targeted by the police.

"Right now, mi just look out of my eye because the police dem still come around here often. If mi at a spot and hear say dem a come, mi just lay low, because from that incident me know say anything can happen. You don't have to do anything to dead," he said.