Former students recall events leading to Gibson’s accident

Several former students of the Princess Margaret Secondary School have been giving their versions of what occurred on September 18, 2009, moments before the late Ian Elroy Gibson was hit by a car on Sunbury Road, St Philip.

Whitney Chase was one of those who gave evidence before the eight-member jury hearing the manslaughter case in which Shaquille Shamal Khalleel Bradshaw and Doniko Javier Alleyne both of Balls Land, Christ Church and Maria Antoinette Goddard of Parish Land C, Balls Land, Christ Church are accused of unlawfully killing 11-year-old Gibson.

The former first form Princess Margaret student died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on September 20, 2009, two days after he was struck by a vehicle on Sunbury Road, St Philip.

The three have pleaded not guilty to the charge in the No. 2 Supreme Court.

Chase said she was in second form at the same school and it was a daily routine to walk up to the bus stop along Sunbury Road to catch the Oistins bus to go home.

She was shading from the sun near the bus stop and Alleyne, Goddard and Bradshaw were also on that road. She knew the trio as they attended the same primary and secondary school.

Goddard, she said, was also in second form.

“Maria had hold Ian, the boy that pass, and let Doniko hit him with his hand . . . When she let go of Ian, Maria hit him also . . . . Ian went on a rock and started to cry,” Chase told the No. 2 Supreme Court as Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale questioned her.

Another boy called Devon Brathwaite, who she said is her brother, went to speak to Ian but the deceased began to “curse” him.

“Ian push up his middle finger . . . and came near to the crowd [of students] . . . . And Shaquille Brathwaite said ‘watch it now men’ and start to walk and Ian started to ran and looking in the direction that Shaquille Brathwaite was coming from and that’s when he was struck,” she disclosed.

“Ian was on the ground with blood coming from his pants and his face,” she added.

Chase also said under cross-examination by Arthur Holder that Bradshaw had a “stick” playing in his hand adding that she could not recall seeing Ian running across the road and back.

Jamal Cox was in fourth form at the St Philip school and was also at the bus stop on that day. He revealed that Doniko Alleyne was upset after saying that Gibson was “dancing behind him” .

“Ian was also crying after he was slapped by Doniko and Maria,” he said saying the accident happened soon after that.

Devon Brathwaite was a fourth form student at the school and he revealed that “Doniko and Maria were troubling a fella . . . they were slapping the boy round his head.”

“I went to Ian and ask him if he good and he was cursing me. . . . I went and sit down [and] after that I saw children running. I thought the bus was coming  . . . [but] I saw Ian on the ground,” he told the court presided by Justice Randall Worrell.

Today investigator Sergeant Cortez Bowen said when he questioned Goddard in the presence of a parent and her attorney on April 8, 2010 she responded: “I ain’t do he nothing
. . . . I was not slapping him”.

Station Sergeant Lemuel Hacket also said Alleyne and Bradshaw denied slapping Gibson when they were questioned at the station.