In November 1996, police killed Winston Hescott during an exchange of gunfire at Madewini Creek. He had had a long criminal track record and around the same time he died one of his brothers was having trouble with the law. Within a few months of his death that brother was killed and just two months ago another brother was gunned down execution style.
Initially one might want to ask what went wrong in the Hescott household. First Winston Hescott on Novem-ber 22, 1996; followed by Adam Hescott on August 3, 1997; then Shawn Hescott on November 7, 2006. A closer look at the family reveals a band of brothers and sisters totalling 11 in number, all raised in a difficult community and under tough circumstances.
Condemnation of the criminal actions of Winston and Adam comes easily; both had police records of robberies and in one case, numerous carjackings. Yet a quick look at the physical surroundings in which they were brought up paints a grim picture and offers an indication that the challenge to stay on the straight and narrow would be difficult.
There were other children in the Hescott household who never got involved in crime, but they could be called the resilient ones. Strong because not only was there desolation at home, but almost everywhere else in the community. Still they got through it.
Winston and Adam were both under age 25 years and were known by the police. Shawn had no criminal record but died in the same manner his brothers did.
On the day Winston died he and two others had hijacked a car and were hiding out on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. Police set up a roadblock and eventually caught up with them. Winston managed to escape and the other two were shot dead. When police confronted him a day later he opened fired and was killed in a shoot-out.
In Adam’s case he had escaped from the Camp Street jail along with seven others and had gone home. Police traced him there and he was killed during a confrontation. The police said he advanced with an ice-pick, but witnesses at the scene and relatives said he was unarmed and was killed in cold blood.
What went wrong is a question their mother Desiree Hescott has repeatedly asked herself and still finds difficult to answer. She said it haunts her to this day and she has not been able to deal with it. “I had to bear up and look after me younger ones. I have a 12-year-old in school now and I have to mek sure he come up the right way. I have to see that he is alright,” Desiree Hescott said.
She said her boys did have trouble with the law and that from time to time she had cause to speak with them about their behaviour but they failed to heed her advice. In the months leading up to Winston’s death, she said, he appeared to have been coming around. Whenever he was at home, she recalled, he assisted doing things around the home and spent time with his brothers and sisters.
According to her, he did regular things and that made her happy. Shortly after there was police trouble then came the morning of November 22, 1996. The news reached her at home and she later went to the Georgetown Hospital morgue to identify the body. A few days later she buried him and prayed that he would have been the only child to die before her.
But what happened next was that Adam started having police trouble. It became too much to handle for Desiree at that time because Winston had only died a few months prior and she was trying to be strong for the other children. The woman said she had support from her husband, but emotionally the children looked to her.
When she said this for the first time during the interview she appears fragile. The statement she constantly makes about being strong for her children is evident now more than ever as she fights back tears. She again repeats that her 12-year-old looks to her every day and that she cannot show signs of weakness.
Desiree said that when both Adam and Shawn were killed she was at home and heard the gunshots. In 1997, she recalled that Adam went home and told her that he had escaped from prison.
“I tell he to go back where he come from. I couldn’t believe he do duh and I de frighten fuh he. Everybody home tell he to go back but de police come and shoot he.”
From what she was told, the woman said, the police cornered her son in Middle Road and shot him dead. Persons at the scene told her he had thrown his hands up in surrender but the police shot him anyhow.
And when Shawn was killed, she said, she heard that two masked men went up to him and shot him after uttering the words, “Is you we come fuh”. She had heard the gunshots but thought nothing of it. Then her daughter started screaming Shawn’s name.
Looking back, she said there might have been things she could have done differently as a mother but she is not sure if they would have worked. She said the boys were at a stage where they made their own decisions and she could no longer control them. All she could do was talk to them.
In her quiet moments she remembers her sons and sometimes wishes that they were still around. She said they were good boys growing up and she did not have to ask them to do work around the house, they just went about doing things.
Before the police trouble and everything that followed, she said, her sons would pass their days doing odd jobs. She said they would work one day and the next day they would be at home sitting around. This was something she had a problem with.
Burying three sons is something Desiree said she would not wish on another mother. She said it has been hard both emotionally and financially. Even now many things are still a struggle for her but she has remained positive and has one sole focus-her young son.
Since 1997 when Adam died, she said, police trouble is something the family has steered clear of. She prays it remains that way.
