The twin brother of 38-year-old Enid Sharpe, who died in a tragic accident on the Linden Highway at Amelia’s Ward last Friday has denied the police’s claims that he showed aggression to army ranks adding that they first fired at his feet and not in the air.
Recounting what had transpired on the day in question in an interview with this newspaper, Keith Gamble said yesterday that when the crash occurred he was not far off. He said he was on the highway with two friends when he heard a loud impact which sounded like two vehicles colliding. Curious as to what had occurred, he said, he ran towards the sound and soon saw schoolchildren running and screaming that an army vehicle had just killed a woman.
He said that at that point he had no clue that it was his sister who was involved in the accident. He recounted seeing the army pickup still moving at a fast pace and two ranks who were in the open back of the vehicle banging on the top of the cab for the driver to stop.
When the pickup finally came to a halt the two ranks who were in the tray ran to the aid of their colleagues who had been thrown out of the vehicle on impact. He said someone then said to him that it was Enid who had been hit.
“On hearing this I rush to see what had happened to my other half,” Gamble said. “When I got there she was still breathing and blood was flowing through her mouth.” He said he shouted out to an army officer to bring a car that was nearby to get his sister to the hospital. “But all he did was stand and watch me like I was a mad man.”
Filled with grief, Gamble watched as his sister stopped breathing. It was then he noticed her severed leg, lying a short distance away. He said he decided to pick it up and run to the officers with it. “I went right up to them holding my sister foot and was telling them look what they have done to my sister.” He confessed that right then he was indeed very angry.
Gamble said the two officers who he had confronted stepped back a few paces from him and fired two rounds towards his feet, a third which passed between him and a friend who was close by and a final round in the air.
This resulted in several persons who were gathered at the scene running for cover. Gamble said his friends and others pulled him to safety.
According to Gamble, traffic officers then arrived on the scene and calmed the situation.
Still in a state of disbelief and anger, the man said, he returned to where his sister’s body was lying, placed her leg next to her and continued mourning.
‘Disturbing and painful’
Sitting on one of his press benches in his personal body building gym at his South Amelia’s Ward home, husband of the deceased woman Lindy Sharpe Snr told Stabroek News that he was leaving home for work when one of his neighbours shouted to him, “Enid just get hit down.”
Sharpe said he was running towards the highway when his wife’s younger brother Andrew Gamble ran pass him. He said that as he approached, he noticed Enid’s twin with “a thing” in his hand running down the highway towards the soldiers.
“The first thing that came to my mind was where he going with this wood,” Sharpe said. He said he had not yet seen his wife lying on the road. “… the soldiers back off and started firing,” Sharpe continued. “I can’t recall if was in the air or the ground but I remember well that I saw them shooting and people started running.”
He said he saw his wife lying on the roadway and ran and held on to her. He said it was not until his brother-in-law came back to where he was that he realized that it was Enid’s leg that he had in his hand.
“For the police or the army to say in some section of the media that it was hostile behaviour by family members towards the soldiers… It wasn’t so because no one had no cutlass or a knife or a gun. It was her leg he had in his hand when they back off and started to fire shots,” Sharpe said.
The army announced on Friday last that it had immediately set up a board of inquiry in the incident.
The widower said that so far no one from the police’s E & F Division or the army had contacted or visited him. He said he visited the local police traffic department and was told that they were only taking care of things from the traffic aspect.
He said they told him he would have to go to, or might be visited by the army authorities.
He said he was further disturbed when he was told that the police would have to take his wife’s body to Georgetown for a post-mortem examination (PME) and he would have to stand the expense of returning it to Linden. The PME is scheduled for tomorrow and Sharpe is hoping to have his wife buried between Friday and Sunday.
Sharpe became very emotional as he spoke of the state of his wife’s body. “They ain’t had a part of my wife body that wasn’t broken. And it is really disturbing and painful to hear them [the army and police] say that speeding wasn’t a factor,” the man lamented. “And added to that there were four others who were injured and you would say that speed wasn’t a factor? This accident happened at Lovers Lane and the vehicle ended stopping almost a half mile away. It can’t be fair. It could never be fair.
“I am not boasting when I say that my wife was the most careful motorcycle user they had in this place because almost every day we would talk about how drivers use the road and she used to be so cautious on that road. Now look what happened to her all because of the negligence of people who know the law,” Sharpe said, tears streaming down his face.
He said all he wants is for the officers to admit that they were at fault and let justice be served. He noted that Friday’s ordeal has left him a lonely man with a motherless son. According to him, just the day prior to the incident his wife had paid for a plot of land, which she intended to secure for her son. “She so badly wanted to see him in long pants at school,” the grief stricken man said. “She was so fond of her son and had so many plans for him but all that went in vain last Friday.”
The couple was married in 2005.
