‘Chopped enemy’, then called police

After he had “chopped up” a man who he described as the “enemy” on the night of April 23, 2016, Omar Ryan Oneal Hurdle dialed 211 and reported his crime.

And recently before the No. 2 Supreme Court the 3rd Avenue Ivy, St Michael resident pleaded guilty to the offence of non-capital murder. That means he will not face the death penalty under the amended Offences Against the Persons Act 2018.

On that Saturday night more than four years ago, 32-year-old Dwayne Jason Omar Gooding, formerly of My Lord’s Hill St Michael was brutally attacked and subsequently died.

Senior Crown Counsel Olivia Davis in outlining the facts revealed that the killer dictated a statement to police in which he disclosed that he was at a bar liming having a Guinness. Due to the hour he decided to make his way home but found himself in an altercation with some men. “We get to high words and them smash my bicycle.”

He said he took his bicycle after putting his hand around one of the fellas and was shown where the bicycle was. He said as he left however, he was pelted with rocks and bottles.

“One hit me in my head and some hit me in my back. I continued riding and went home. When I get home I check my head and see that it was cut and I get offset.

“I tek up a sword from home and walk out by St Giles Nursery School to see if I see de men to retaliate. When I get out by the school I see a man walking in the area of the burn down building and I walk up to he and start chopping he. The man fall down and I continue to chop him multiple times . . . when de man stop moving I stop chopping he.

“I walk down by the gas station in Welches, walk through de back … call 211 and tell the person that answer that I chop up somebody and where I was. The police come, I kneel down and put the sword on the ground. I took them to the area where I chop up the man, “ the statement read.

However, Hurdle told Justice Randall Worrell today via a Zoom meeting that the statement was not one that he gave.

“That oral statement is not right sir. That say that I walk up to the [man] and just chop he up just so. I don’t, I don’t understand that part.”

The operator on duty at the police Control Room said she received a phone call at about 10:44 p.m. from a male who identified himself and gave his address. The caller stated: “I now chop up a man. I in St Paul, you know St Paul? They now burst my head, I got a sword in my hand. Send the police I will carry the police where I chop up the man. I was out in darkness behind the post office. You know Welches Post Office?”

The operator replied “Yes” and the conversation ended and the call was reported to lawmen at the District ‘A’ Police Station.

They responded, saw Hurdle who was armed with a cutlass on the roadway. On seeing the police he raised his hands above his head and when asked what had happened said, “The enemy burst my head and I chop he up.”

Lawmen, the prosecutor said, noticed that Hurdle had a wound to the back of his head.

Officers took the cutlass, detained Hurdle who directed them to an area east of the St Giles Primary School.

Lawmen saw a man who was later identified as the deceased, lying on the ground, he was alive at the time but unresponsive. They noticed injuries to his head, face, right hand and right shoulder.

He subsequently died.

A postmortem conducted on April 29 that same year concluded that the cause of death was due to multiple head trauma with traumatic brain injury.

The sentencing phase of the case will continue on September 17 when Hurdle returns from the Psychiatric Hospital. The judge ordered that he be transferred to the Black Rock, St Michael facility for a “full” report, at the request of his attorney-at-law Safiya Moore.