Black Immigrant Daily News

Classé dans la catégorie des week-end à rallonge, cette fin de semaine promet des rendez-vous sportifs aux quatre coins de l’île, dans de nombreuses disciplines.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

Vidéo Grand JT des Territoires

Retrouvez, chaque semaine, le « Grand JT des Territoires » de Cyril Viguier, diffusé sur TV5 Monde, en partenariat avec France-Antilles.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

It was a normal end of workday in August for Dane Turner, a taxi driver who operates in the Corporate Area, while taking passengers to Half-Way-Tree from Chancery Street (Price Rite).

By the time he got to Constant Spring Road, he realised that he had only one passenger left in his car. It was a woman.

As it was just after 8pm, the taxi driver was thinking that he would be able to get off early that night. However, it ended up being a long night that saw him being ticketed by the police in order to save that passenger’s life.

Turner told Loop News that the drive into Half-Way-Tree was quiet, until he noticed blood on the passenger’s hands. She was holding a razor blade.

“I started questioning her, asking her what was she doing and all she said was that everything is over and she was going to end it,” Turner recounted.

The father of toddlers said that he was worried about the stranger, who had threatened to injure herself fatally.

“She had razor blades, so I didn’t want to try to take them from her.

“I decided that I couldn’t let her leave the car and hurt herself, so I started driving her around. She said she wanted to go downtown, but I think that once she get to her destination she would hurt herself,” he said.

The taxi operator said that he told his passenger that he would take her to a police station but she said she would open her wrist before he could get help.

According to the taxi operator, at first, the passenger refused to say what was troubling her.

Turner said he offered her something to eat or drink as he wanted to get her help without things escalating. When she refused the offer, he decided to get the police to help, but he had to do it in such a way that she wouldn’t realise what was happening.

“By that time I was just driving all over Kingston. I wanted to get the police to stop me, so I started doing some things, but the police wouldn’t pull me over.

“I broke stoplights, drive through stop signs and no police stopped me. When that didn’t work, I disconnected one of my front light and drove on Mandela Highway,” he recounted.

It was then that he was stopped by a team of police officers carrying out traffic operations on the highway.

He said that when he explained to the police what was happening, they didn’t believe him. Turner said he was ticketed and told that he was just trying to get out of receiving the ticket.

Turner said he insisted that they help him with the woman. According to the taxi operator, he managed to convince two of the senior police officers on the team and they came up with a plan to get the passenger out of the car and get her help.

After getting a policewoman to assist, Turner recounted that they accosted him and took him over to his vehicle.

The police then reportedly began roughing up the taxi driver while asking him about illegal weapons. Once they were satisfied that the woman in the car was convinced that they were looking for guns, the policewoman asked her to step out the vehicle so it could be searched.

When she stepped out of the vehicle, they noticed the blades and the blood and, after some time, they convinced her to drop the blades.

“She was screaming and crying saying that she lost her job and she doesn’t have a place to live. Life was hard for her and she just didn’t see her way out,” Turner recalled.

“My conscience couldn’t allow me to walk away. I know I couldn’t bear it if I was to put her out of my vehicle and then I see her on the news dead,” he told Loop News.

The taxi operator said in the confusion, the police did not cancel the ticket and he had to pay the fine in Traffic Court.

However, Turner said he didn’t mind because he recently saw the passenger again when she boarded his taxi.

According to the taxi driver, she thanked him for what he had done that night in August and told him that she is now employed and is trying to improve her life.

Jamaicans can contact the Ministry of Health’s mental health and suicide prevention helpline at 888-NEW-LIFE (639-5433) for mental health support.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

– Advertisement –

The Salvation Army has called on thieves who recently entered its Castries Headquarters on High Street and made off with several items to ask for help if they are in need rather than resort to theft.

Commanding Officer Wousdel Louis said his organisation would assist where possible.

However, he advised thieves that the Salvation Army does not have money.

“I want them to know that we don’t have money. They don’t need to come if they want money. Maybe the things we have for the less fortunate they will take them. But I can tell them please, instead of robbing us, it is better for them to bring something to us,” the Salvation Army Commanding Officer declared.

– Advertisement –

In addition, he advised individuals in need to ask rather than steal.

“Everyone who comes to ask, if we have, we give,” he observed.

Louis said on Sunday he discovered that two windows at the front of the Salvation Army building were open and items were missing.

“Because they did not have keys to pass through the doors, they had to go back through the windows. So they took transformers, fan, a box and some other things,” the Salvation Army official told St Lucia Times.

“Everything they could carry through the windows they took,” Louis stated.

He said he reported the theft to the police, and the Salvation Army would secure the windows through which the thieves entered.

“Because we are alive, we give God thanks,” Louis declared.

In addition, Louis explained that the Salvation Army does not work for itself but in the interest of the people of Saint Lucia.

“We feed  people from Monday to Friday – the street people, those who cannot help themselves, and we feed the people at Cornerstone at Vigie Monday to Friday,” he said, adding that the number involved is some 120 individuals.

The Salvation Army also runs a Day Care for children and a thrift store.

Headline photo: Wousdel Louis (Courtesy HTS News)

– Advertisement –

NewsAmericasNow.com