Marleen Knight is struggling to understand how in just under one year a United States jury has found former police officer Derek Chauvin, 45, guilty of murdering African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis last year, but she is yet to get justice for her husband Selwyn “Blues” Knight who was shot to death six years ago.
Hours after the US verdict, a grieving Knight told Barbados TODAY that her family felt insulted that though Police Constable Everton Gittens, who is now on bail was charged for murdering her husband on March 15, 2015, the case is still lingering in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court.
The widow said she is now hoping and praying that the local judicial system moves with similar haste to expedite such cases in Barbados.
“I should never be in court for six years and the case can’t get out of the lower court to go to the high court. You imagine leaving court at 4 and 3 o’clock on evenings and all you could hear is adjourned.
“I am a small fish. I ain’t got no backing. I ain’t got nobody to go out there and protest and carry on and get on in the worst way.”
Marleen said though her health has been deteriorating since her husband’s death, she is not giving up on fighting for justice for him. She said not only has she been turning up to court whenever she is ordered to do so, she is constantly checking in with investigators who oversaw the matter.
“The last time I went to court I couldn’t even step up the steps to go in the court. The magistrate had to come down to me because my feet swelling,” she added.
The mother, who is also grieving the loss of a child who committed suicide a few years ago, said that while many often advise her to encourage her son to have the bullet lodged in his neck removed in a complex surgical procedure, she would not be doing so at this time. She explained that she was informed that whenever the bullet is removed it would have to be handed over to the police.
The soon to be 65-year-old, who gave up selling newspapers because of declining sales, noted that there has been no compensation for the death of their household’s main breadwinner.
She said the survivor’s benefit she receives on a monthly basis was simply not enough to meet her financial needs, and noted that she was concerned that they had no money available to pay the expenses if her son encountered a medical emergency as a result of the bullet in his body.
Knight added: “. . . My representative never come in here and talk to me yet and ask me ‘Mrs Knight is there anything that I can do for you?’.
She said when she heard the news that Chauvin was found guilty of murder, she felt relieved, but also sad at the same time for the former police officer.
In fact, Marleen said while some may be surprised that she would feel sorry for Chauvin, she did not intend to hold hatred in her heart for anyone.
“But I feel good with the verdict. It ain’t my verdict but I feel good because I tell myself somebody got to start something. It got to begin somewhere. You got to make people accountable for their actions. You get a badge and you go out there, you swear to serve and to protect. We got to be one another brother’s keeper,” she said.
Knight extended gratitude to political scientist and call-in programme commentator Peter Wickham for highlighting on his Facebook page that after killing Floyd in May 2020, Chauvin has already been convicted just under a year since he committed the act.
“Switch to Barbados. Majority black country, majority black judiciary, majority black police force and it’s been six years since Constable Gittens [allegedly] shot and killed Selwyn “Blues” Knight and injured his son and the case is yet to start. Yet we stand ready to criticize the largely white-controlled American police and justice system for the treatment of black people,” Wickham’s Facebook post read. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)
