Inspector Victor George Henry, a Jamaican cop, has had his share of brushes with death – 8 to be exact. Inspector Henry describes his most defining moment to Stabroek News. Flashback to April 2000:
“I was the operations manager at CCN at the time and there was an incident the night before in Mountain View. Mr (Reneto) Adams’s team had killed one of the alleged gunmen or don men from the area, which caused some amount of upheaval.”
[…]
“When I reached Deanery Avenue, I saw some debris on the road, so I turned right and then left to get around. When the car was in that position, I heard wush, wush, and I saw blood and all sorts of things splattered on my suit. Both [my partner and I] had our firearms, and initially I thought that he had shot himself, so I held him up with one hand. If I had reversed I would have been killed that day. The bullets pierced the windscreen and pierced his skull, but I didn’t see that until afterwards. Up to now I don’t know where the shots came from.
I drove through fire, fuelled by tyres, and made a split decision to go to the hospital. When you looked down the road it was like Beirut or Belfast… war-torn straight down.”
I will do my best to send Inspector Henry a looks like Beirut certificate because apparently, gang wars in Kingston leave streets looking like this:
Beirut Corniche -- via flickr