(Jamaica Gleaner) The mother of a teenage truck driver is on the hunt for justice after her son’s death several weeks ago, reportedly from eating a poisoned ackee breakfast.
A grieving Keron James, who resides at Awful Gully in Bickersteth, St James, said her 19-year-old son, Kevin ‘Matty’ Davis, was an expert truck driver who only wanted to drive.
“All his passion was to drive, driving is in his blood, because his father is also a truck driver, an dem kill him, an mi not getting any justice from anybody, not even the police,” James told The Gleaner.
She recalled that on the last day of November, Kevin woke up, put water in his truck, and then left home with his brother as they did every morning.
“About 9:30 that morning, mi get a call from him father sey him hear say Kevin collapse, an den him call back seh him hear say him dead. Mi tun fool same time, and mi call a co-worker and ask him fi drop mi up a Cornwall Regional Hospital.”
James said when she got to the hospital and made inquiries, she was told that no patient had come with her son’s name. But then she got a call from a police officer who told her to come to the Flankers community where her son worked as a truck driver, transporting hardware materials.
“When mi reach out deh, mi si mi son lying dung pon the ground wid a piece of tarpaulin covering his body, an’ immediately mi collapse,” she said.
“Sometime later, when mi come to, an’ ask wha do him, de policeman tell mi seh him consume ackee and corn pork breakfast an collapse, an’ dem a treat the incident as a no-interest case.”
The breakfast was purchased at a restaurant.
NORMAL APPROACH
James said she inquired of the policeman whether that was the normal approach to such an incident, and she was told that the autopsy results would determine whether the case would be reopened.
She said a post-mortem was done recently that revealed that her son died from “ackee poisoning acute”.
“The pathologist tell mi that is not a natural case of ackee poisoning. Him say a natural case would sen’ Kevin to hospital where him could dead, or him could a nuh dead, but the fact that him dead pon the spot show say other substances was added to the ackee.”
The broken-hearted woman said she returned to the Coral Gardens Police Station with the documented results, but has yet to hear of any investigation being launched.
She said the case has not been reopened and that a detective informed her that there was not much that could be done because he had no knowledge of the ackee poisoning anyone else in the area.
James said she was unhappy with the approach being taken by the police and that she believed an immediate investigation should have taken place when the incident occurred.
She believes her son was deliberately poisoned by someone close to him.
The matter was reported to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which has taken an interest in the case.
However, a senior police officer told The Gleaner that, while he was familiar with the incident, he was not aware of the post-mortem results showing that Davis died from acute ackee poisoning.
“This is new to me,” the officer stated. “I am aware of the death of the young man, but was not aware of the nature of the autopsy results. This sounds very interesting and sounds like a case in which an investigation should have been launched weeks ago.”
