Man hits cop during fight over fast food

A man who accidentally hit a policewoman as he fought with another man in a fast food outlet was ordered to pay $100,000 in compensation when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday.

Akeem Gooden pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and assault occasioning actual bodily harm but pleaded not guilty to failure to wear a mask under the Disaster Risk Management Act. The court heard that Gooden and another man were involved in a brawl at a restaurant drive-through on Constant Spring Road. The other man pulled a cutlass but called on the police officer to intervene.

The complainant, a police inspector, told the court that while holding the man, Gooden walked up to her and started punching the man. She told the court that while parting the fight, Gooden's elbow hit her glasses and caused bruises under her eye. She told the judge that she had to do a CT scan, which cost $40,000. The other man appeared in court last month and pleaded guilty to his role in the fight.

Senior Parish Court Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague chastised Gooden for his behaviour. "You are very out of order. You know what is wrong with some of you? Unnu head too hot. How dare you to have done that, to be punching the man out of the officer's grasp?" she said.

"The glasses would have to be replaced because she needs a new lens. Boy, some of you put yourself in some problems. Look at all the problems weh unnu get and I bet all of this is over who going get first in a KFC line. The meal deal never worth it. Sir, you looking at $100,000 and I find it deeply offensive that the officer would have been in her uniform, khaki at that, and that nuh send no message," Cole-Montague said. Gooden was fined $3,000 for resisting arrest and was further remanded until June 14.