The family of the elderly man who was killed in a hit-and-run on Monday night are demanding justice.
Members of the grief-stricken family told Barbados TODAY on Tuesday that during this time of loss, they felt angry and wanted answers.
Ainsley Roosevelt Bradshaw was killed a few metres away from his Kings Court, Lodge Road, Christ Church home on Monday around 9:15 p.m. The 74-year-old man was walking along the main road – Lodge Road – when a vehicle struck him and the driver fled the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
When a Barbados TODAY team visited his residence, the mood was sombre. Many of his relatives were comforting one another. Bradshaw’s only child, Shanelle Cumberbatch, said she was too distraught to speak and her first cousin Reneika Beckles spoke on her behalf.
Beckles, a university student, said she was up late working on a school project when her mother called her with the sad news. Multiple relatives visited the scene and when they saw Bradshaw lying on the ground, they were overcome with emotion. She said Cumberbatch “was on the floor next to her father just in shock and disbelief”.
“It was dreadful, it was unbelievable. I can’t even find the words to describe (the scene). There was a lot of tension and anger at what took place,” Beckles said.
She said her uncle had been on his way home, after leaving his sister Sonia Bradshaw’s residence, when he met his death. “She told him to travel safely.”
Beckles said her uncle, who was affectionately called Charlie or Amos, was deeply loved. She said Cumberbatch and her 12-year-old daughter, Bradshaw’s sole grandchild, were taking it the hardest.
She said the family wanted justice and answers.
“We are angry and we want answers. We want the driver to own up to what they did. He (Bradshaw) is not a piece of meat, he is a human being that was loved. The person didn’t even stop to check to see if he was alive or okay, and now all that is left [for] us is to grieve the loss of our uncle, father and brother who did not deserve to die like this,” Beckles said.
Bradshaw’s younger sister, who did not give her name, said: “First of all, we would like to see the person brought to justice. That is what we would really like to see. I know the person was probably in shock but he could have at least come back. But they never came back. This is why we feel the way we do. There was no respect at all.”
Beckles added that the family was hoping that security cameras in the area picked up what occurred as it would advance police investigations.
Bradshaw is the island’s sixth road fatality for the year and the third person to die in three consecutive accidents, two of them hit-and-runs, over the Heroes Day weekend.
Last Saturday, 56-year-old Anderson Benedict Graham of Long Bay Village Road, St Philip died a short distance from his home. He too was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. His body was found near the Salvation Army Church in that St Philip district just before 2 a.m.
In light of the two similar incidents, Beckles suggested that the island’s moral compass was changing for the worse: “I think it is shifting, and drastically so. It is not like the days my mother told me about where as a community we looked out for each other; it has shifted immensely. It is something that we have to worry about. Where is our humanity? Where is our sense of community?”
Bradshaw was the sixth of 14 children of Ruel and Dorothy Bradshaw.
Raised in the Lodge Road community, he often attended the nearby Wesleyan Holiness Church as a child.
He was a well-known painter and although he was retired, his craftsmanship was still demanded by many.
Bradshaw’s family said that despite his age, he was agile and fit. He would ensure the surroundings of his home were well kept and often climbed a ladder to complete painting jobs.
He was also described as a loving family man who was quiet and reserved and had a select group of people he called friends.
The third road fatality that occurred over the weekend was 29-year-old Rasheed Shaquille Oneal Austin, of the Villages at Coverley, Christ Church. He lost his life in a motor vehicle accident that occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Monday, along the Adams section of the ABC Highway in the vicinity of its junction with Balls Road, Christ Church.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
