MAN SHOT 33 TIMES - Forgives attackers, determined to rebuild life

Adisa Alexander said he felt his soul leaving his body shortly after he was shot not once, not twice, not thrice, but 33 times!

The chilling incident took place on October 13, 2020, in Tavern, a community that neighbours his hometown of Gordon Town, St Andrew. He was heading home from work, but rain forced him to seek shelter at a shop.

"I got up and prepared my mother's breakfast and left for work on a construction site. When I get there no work wasn't going on, so I left and stop at one a mi brethren shop and little and little after a car just drive up and a man come out and just start shoot mi. I get 33 gunshots. It wasn't easy to pick up 33 shots from an M-16 rifle. It cause mi to lose both my legs and other severe injuries. My left hand mash up, my fingers cannot bend. I got shot in my back, hip and other places. God is so good that I didn't get any shot in my spine," he said.

Alexander told THE WEEKEND STAR that he does not know his attackers and has no idea why he was shot. His days are spent lying on his back in his bed -- close to the doorway of the one-bedroom dwelling he shares with his mother -- and his eyes are fixed on God who he said gave him a second chance.

"I would want to tell the person who shot mi to just give their life to the Lord. It is senseless to go around and shoot people who you don't even know because you are destroying innocent lives. Right now, they destroy all my life. I am here struggling now, and I never use to. I pray and talk to God and ask him to forgiven them. I have forgiven them because they don't know what they have done," he said.

The 41-year-old longs to be outdoors in his farm, but the closest he comes to farming is stretching his right hand to throw corn to his chickens. Prior to being attacked, Alexander was not only a construction worker but also a farmer, an exponent of martial arts, barber and cook.

He inhaled and exhaled deeply as he explained how his independence was snuffed from him following the attack, which has left him without the use of his legs, which had to be amputated, and his left hand is virtually paralysed.

"I didn't have any time to sit down, I didn't take a break but right now I lose all of that. Everything gone. The only thing I have now is few goats a walk up and down. Mi pigs dem dead off and dem tief my rabbit dem. Mi barber shop mash up. Mi deh here just a gwan hold it out. I don't know what to expect, but all I can say is that this is life and I have to accept it as it is," Alexander said.

In addition to losing his many income sources, Alexander's personal life has changed. At the time of being attacked, he was in a relationship with the mother of his children. His relationship of 11 years years ended last December after he was sent home following his 14-month stay in hospital.

"From I came out I am here struggling with my old lady, and she can't walk. I have to try and find somebody to help mi and pay them, and I am not working. If I can't pay them, I just have to gwan lay down and tough it out with mi old lady same way. Everybody turn dem back, everybody gone. Friends and close family gone and mi have to wonder a what happen," he said.

Alexander said that he longs to be around his three daughters but the way things are, he has nowhere to accommodate them.

"I want to put on two more rooms on my house because I want all my children to be where I am, and add on a varendah, so I can move around. It's been a while since I go outside. I just have to look outside. My wife helped me when I was hospitalised, but she broke up with me after I got discharged.

His mother, Joan Alexander, looked on as her son spoke to the news team. Her legs are swollen, but she vowed to be his feet until he is able to manage on his own.

"He is a very trying person. I am not going to leave him. Until this blessed hour I haven't shed a tear. People say I am strong. I just take it one day at a time. I tell him I am not going to leave him until he is Okay. He is the third of my six children, I am not leaving him," she said.

Alexander, displaying the fighting spirit he did on the day he came face to face with death, is determined to get his life back on track. He said that a pair of prosthetic legs or a motorised wheelchair will help him to regain some semblance of independence.

Persons wishing to assist Adisa Alexander may contact him via telephone at (876) 542 8440.