A grieving Christ Church mother, whose son succumbed today to the gunshot wounds he suffered at the hands of police in an incident at Maxwell Plains, in the same parish, on Tuesday, is condemning what she sees as his senseless death.
“They killed my child,” was the cry of Norma Stuart, as she publicly vented her anger at police over the loss of her beloved son.
“He should be with me now, not going six feet down,” she told Barbados TODAY as she struggled to come to terms with her loss.
On Tuesday, police reported that investigating officers were approaching a resident to make some inquiries when a series of loud explosions were heard coming from the direction of a group of people who were liming in the area.
Quickly after that, lawmen say they were forced to run for cover and later had to discharge their weapons after a motorcar, driven by 32-year-old Dwayne Ward, of Dayrells Hill, Christ Church, sped at them in a threatening manner before crashing into a parked lorry.
Amid mixed reports from residents about how the shooting episode unfolded, Ward was subsequently transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital under police escort and was reportedly in critical condition.
However, after a valiant fight over the past three days, he was declared dead earlier today immediately throwing his family into a state of mourning.
When Barbados TODAY visited his mother’s home, the 55-year-old single mother was extremely upset, describing her son’s death as an “assassination” by law enforcement officers that had left her filled with anger and lots of pain.
“I’m trying to cope but this is a total disaster. It is wrong, it is not right. They killed my son. That was something wilfully done,” she said, not attempting to hide her emotions.
“When I think about it I am really vex to think of what happened,” Stuart said, while reporting that over a dozen bullets were fired at her son, including one that hit him in the head.
“Why they shot him in the head? I am not satisfied with this. They didn’t have to kill him [but] they took my son and assassinated him,” she cried, while suggesting that justice would be served.
“Whoever do it will meet [their own fate],” the grieving mother said, adding that “they [police] can’t take people children and kill them all the time so”.
“Something needs to be done. Police killing people children and getting away with it,” she stressed.
With tears in her eyes, Stuart reminisced about the last conversation she had with her son, of whom she had several fond memories.
“I remember he would bring friends over and they would torment me. When I cooking he would go in my pot before it done and when I looking for the food he got a plate and outside eating unfinished food,” she said.
She also recalled their last conversation on Sunday night.
“He came to me and say, ‘mummy, you got money? I want a pack of pampers for the little boy’ and I went and take out some money and gave him,” she said in reference to the father of five, who she said did everything in his power to take care of his children.
In light of his death, Stuart said she was particularly worried about how his 11-year-old daughter, a student of Good Shepherd, would take the tragic news, considering she was anticipating a shopping trip with her father which could no longer occur.
“His daughter was his heart. How are we going to tell her that he is dead when she comes home from school now? We told her on Wednesday that daddy was in hospital and she hasn’t said anything since.
“I don’t know how we are going to tell her [he is dead] because he promised to take her shopping,” his mother explained.
Stuart, who is a cleaner by profession, told Barbados TODAY that Ward was the younger of her two sons, neither of whom were saints.
However, she still did not believe he deserved to die the way he did.
“My children are not saints but they try to go with the flow. When you interfere with a person and have them frustrated, they retaliate. He [Ward] was a lovable, fun child. He won’t laugh regular of course unless he got a really good joke, but otherwise he was a decent child. Anything I wanted he would get for me.
“I am not saying he was a perfect child. He had his way of doing things, but otherwise he shouldn’t be dead, he should be home now.”
The grieving mother also expressed concern about the cost of her son’s funeral.
“I have to look for burying fee right now. I am in debt and look at me now I have to look for money to bury him. Where am I going to get it from? I don’t have any money save. I don’t know how I am going to get it,” she told Barbados TODAY.
Norma you are saying it was An extrajudicial killing
Then you need a good Lawyer like Andrew (The Lion Heart) Pilgrim and witnesses
Train up a child in the right way Norma and when he gets old he won’t depart from it,we mothers know what arw children arw doing
Be Strong Mrs.Stuart& Have Faith
I sympathis with your loss madame, but blaming the police for taking action in this ordeal is out of order in my belief.
Proper parental training should have included respect for law and order.
Many more like you will feel the pain of incidents like this once the actions of their children conflict with the principles of society.
Who said this lady didn’t train up her child in the right way and he departed from it. We are so quick to judge, you can take a cow to the water but you can’t make him drink.this child had a mind of his own and may jave had a decent upbringing but chose the wrong path. My condolences to tjis family and may her son RIP!
I Am quoting Barbados Today. The mother said “(Dwayne)Ward was the younger of two sons neither of whom were saints.”
“My children are not saints but they try to go with the flow. When you interfere with a person and have them frustrated, they retaliate.”
“I am not saying he was a perfect child. He had his way of doing things, but otherwise he shouldn’t be dead, he should be home now.”
Mom I grieve with you, But!
Norma, your son was a vagabond and you know that, the police was right they also have to protect themselves as they protect and serve the country. Too many lawless useless wasteful and stupid young and big hard back men on the street doing foolishness and think they are right. cannot be allowed has to be brought under control
Ditto to Straight Talk. The police have to protect themselves and the wider society from these thugs.
What a terrible thing! But please, people, do not judge so harshly. Maybe the victim panicked and acted unwisely. I suspect that the police did not mean to kill the man. A head shot under those circumstances is more like sheer bad luck. My condolences to the family.
These young men are lawless and the parents know!!!! Then wanna say “he had his way of doing things”. I’ve had first hand experience of the lawless ways of these men having been robbed by gunpoint so the police NEED to do what they have to do to protect themselves and society from these hoodlums!!
Police been murdering youngsters in Barbados for eons, and as you so correctly said, getting away with it. If we have any semblance of salvation, its these devices we always have in our hands. Record them and record them all the time. Word of witnesses means nothing in our courts against policemen. Video is your best bet and not even that is a garantee. I’ve seen Barbados police collect video footage from security cameras because they knew it would incriminate them.
I bet you in the past this gunslinger will be out there and the RBPF putting out an ad for he to “turn yourself in to the nearest police station with a Lawyer”.
Got the clean the streets up and bring back a “normal” way of life to BIM.
That so called “drug hole” that the person in court said out in Greenfield, is there not a Building at the Corner of Roebuck Street and the same Greenfield that conduct Police matters daily ?. This reminds me of the building right across from the fire Station in Bridgetown and still was burnt flat.
@JAG – I was waiting for someone with your type of response. Brilliant, and what is even worst is when we have black people with a similar mindset to that of those white police in the USA and UK etc who r doing similar. But this is how clones react. Mind u our police r being trained by the said racist white police forces all over the world. My friend currently abroad getting training.
Those youth r clones too and all u who think u r behaving “normal” here in Babylon aka Egypt. Of course u all will be blind to all this.
Condolences to u Norma, and the home circle.
Then JAG and Jennifer please explain to the rest of us what is meant by “he had his way of doing things.” Can you tell us what these things are, since you two seems to know so much?
@Mike – “he had his way of doing things.” that could mean anything, everybody got their way of doing things, saying things etc. It is what u read into it at the end of the day. I know nothing but what is printed here, but some of us r too much conclusionalist.
Yrs ago I saw things through the eyes of “dirty harry” rat brown etc.
A good or bad child is better than no child all ya will speak but at the end of the day that lady lost her son
So ez up on her and stop being so harsh
My condolences to this grieving mother and the children of this grown man. The Post independence era saw a break down along class lines of Barbadian society. A percentage of us were fortunate to be educated and lived great lives and continue to live a level of comfort. Many individuals like his mother were never afforded the opportunity to be afforded diverse skills. In turn trying to raise children has left a culture of poverty and crime on the island. I hope the new government will invest in skills training and family planning to alleviate the ongoing culture of poverty. Such an investment will result in a healthier society.
Mike…..i am over 30. Male, born and raised in deacons, in an area commonly known as “the red sea”. I went to Deacons Primary School. I was always “bright”. At 11 i passed for one of the older secondary schools, finished 5th form with 10 cxc, did 6th form and got my 4 A levels. Went on to University abroad, came back home after 6 years and my first job was 7 years at the embassy of a foreign land here in Bim. I have a wife, children and a mortgage. Ive never been charged with a crime. I have never been arrested. I have never used drugs of any kind. Ya know what i learned through the years Mike? 1 all of us from the ghetto are not criminals 2 the police in barbados treat u different when u from where i grew up. Im not speculating here my friend. Im talking based on 30+ years of up close and personal observation. They serve protect and reassure, yes, the middle to upper classes. Mike if I begin to tell u the things i have WITNESSED (not was told….witnessed) your dearly beloved boys in blue do…..
bad-boys!!!
your tragic story,will bring uh journalist glory ..
Now i dont know this young man, so dont get me wrong. Im not defending him. But i most certainly am not condemning him either, ESPECIALLY NOT on the word of NO police.
Ok I understand, but JAG, his mom told us he was not a saint and she said it twice.
Mothers you all need to talk with your sons before it’s too late because at the end of the day it only seems like mothers who are hurted. I am sure if you had to hear the fathers’ views they would more likely be different from the
mother’s. We mothers seem to be have unconditional
love for the sons that we are blind about the wrongs they are doing or even to say “son you are wrong”. Well if we women continue down that road many of us would be holding our bellies hollering. Too many times the choir boys are gunned either by their soldiers and in this case the cops.
The police is here to protect and serve.
In a nutshell our black people r fully destroyed by another peoples. Majority of our women dress like ho*$, funding other nations by wearing their hair, everything about this people is fake and unnatural. Fatherless children, weak. Single mothers and grand mothers etc and the list goes on and on. Until this people get back to black this madness will continue. Simple.
and a justice system which facilitates all of it. The black man has been beat down to putty by the society world wide and the only thing left for them to do to get any kind of elevation is to swirl, which is more problems.
This people have nothing of their own, culture, identity, social systems, dress, language, foods and even their religion is that of another nation, so what do u expect. This is like a Chinese being named
Charley smith. Some of us r just better at the brainwashing,
processing and how to play the
game. Unfortunately it
appear that this young man had most of those negative markers going against him.
I remember back in the 60’s seeing a photo in a paper where 3 persons were posted. The Man pants was falling off his butt, the Lady had on the nimpest mini skirt and the young daughter had on a halter top and a mini skirt.
It reads “FILTH FOLLOW FILTH”.
My condolences to his mom and relatives. I pray that our youth will try to live according to His word and that those executing the law will do so in all fairness. May he rest in peace.
Jag you need to stop running that red rag in your mouth without any credible evidence. You are seemingly confusing reality with some fictitious Tv show you have been watching. Most of these parents know what their children are up to and when as a result of their nefarious deeds they die especially in confrontation with the police first and foremost on their minds is monetary compensation from the state and unfortunately clowns like you and mark my word support them. If they really had their children’s welfare at heart they would themselves hand them over to the police before any such incidents occur because I know that they are aware of their involvement in criminal acts. Jennifer, I see you are back on your race baiting bandwagon your liberal and leftist ideas have certainly overshadowed your ability to be reasonable or rational in any given circumstance where plain common sense should prevail.
You said it there aren’t no saints
How y’all know what the police said is true ? Who even said he drove at them. Everybody so quick to judge because he’s a young man. God knows exactly what happened keep y’all judgemental and harsh comments to your damn selves. May he Rip..
Jennifer, in the world I live in I see lots of Black people doing positive things everyday; however, they are a few who are hell bent on destroying themselves, the community they live in and the whole Black race if they could. Jennifer, you are coming from a dark place and you should try to extricate yourself from that life through counseling or religion, in oder words get professional help.
JAG thanks for the Bio. Do you ever go back to the “Red Sea” to try to influence some of the impressionable minds.Don’t take this as a personal attack or a criticism of you; matter of fact I think you have done very well for yourself.
I literally lived on the Bank of the Red Sea, the City of Sharma-El-Sheikh, beautiful. The rising sun would cast a hue (red) on the waters and there is serenity in the air. It amazes me how these criminal elements can co-op names like Gaza, Red Sea, Benghazi, Cambodia.etc.,and in most cases never visit any, as a link to their crime ridden lives.
Cool it Sherlock, cool it. I am liberal, I am leftist, and I am rational; I am sure they are many more like me on here. I agree with most of what you said, but your Faux(Fox) News bias is beginning to show.
Mike, I am as real as you can get, I am also at the tip of the spear the leftist agenda is hell-bent on destroying the good values that we are accustomed to in our societies. The left is easily triggered by the slightest and silliest of things in the name of political correctness. By the way, give me Fox news any day over fake news CNN. I, however, view a wide variety of news I am an ardent information warrior.
@Mike – who’s religion exactly? Until u remove the wool in your eyes u will remain in the congregation of the (walking) dead. Now IF U R BLACK, and with ur kind of thought process u r dead of SELF, and everything variable which gives u a reason for living, dead of IDENTITY, dead of CULTURE, dead of SELF WORTH, dead of the knowledge of your CREATOR. Most of this people love it so. Just being relegated to servants and hewers of wood. This young man was in such a position also, u Mike r just better at playing the game.
@God first – well spoken.
Who is destroying the world right now?, that President in the Right (White) House (“Right” for Noe-Nazi supporters, and failed and cruel Right Wing policies). I complement you for being an Information Warrior, but when you information is farmed from sources like “info Wars” Alex Jones, faux news and Sean Hannity, your warrior spirit you channeled is grossly misdirected.
Lastly, since when being correct in any form (politically correct, etc.) is wrong? This Orwellian newspeak from the right is used to dissemble, obfuscate and misdirect their failed policies.
If being correct (politically) is wrong then I don’t want to be right nor right wing.
Jennifer you are digging deeper, and I think I can help you.
This people have been given a religion of a snowflake, half consumed Jesus as their Savior to pray to, and ironically from the same race of people which killed all your prophets and predecessors. Now how f%^* up is that and not one of u will question it. The said bs which got this people FULLY DESTROYED. Oh I forgot, u r educated. And I need counseling. Go look up the religious Russian Icons.
@Mike – “I think I can help you.” OK let me hear u.
@Jennifer. Which one Healer Pantheleimon, Sergius of Radlonezh or Theotokos Vladimirskya?
@Mike – what is or when was the renaissance period. DO NOT GET SLICK.
Now let us get the bible open, when u r ready. After all it is Sunday. Oh look up that old Romanian church too, with what is painted on its walls.
Jennifer, I am listening to Brasstacks and missed your question. The renaissance covered the 14 – early 18th century. Instead of having me do all of this homework, get to the point. Educate me, I have the will to learn
All this bible talk, my suggestion its better reading a WHICH) magazine…………..