Man wants to sue cop who shot him

A frustrated Wilbert Vassell walked into the offices of THE STAR last week, seeking answers on how to get his life back. The 46-year-old said that his world has been turned upside down since he was shot in the leg by a policeman on September 5, 2017.

"The government needs to give me some money because mi can't even walk properly. The police shoot mi fi nutten," he said.

Vassell, who lived on Chisolm Avenue in St Andrew, said his ordeal began after he had a verbal clash with his mother. That argument, he said, started after his mother "throw some mess" in the backyard that he had earlier swept. His response was to take up the mess and carry it to the front of the yard.

But little did he know that the matter would escalate. He said that he had just finished washing some clothes and was getting ready to cook when the cops arrived and saw him with a cutlass in his hand.

"I was going to look wood, when they told me to drop the cutlass. I kept asking what I had done and I told them that I would only drop it if they put away their guns and baton, because I don't know why they were there because I did nothing wrong. Dem say I must come with them and I keep asking them why. Next ting mi hear is 'pow' and mi start wonder a wah, but that shot a did in the air and then a next police just run on and shoot mi in the leg," he said.

Vassell said he was transported to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

"I was under police guard for the night and in the morning the police leave and said I should wait on the doctor, but mi did fraid so mi walk out a the hospital after. Mi go home and go use aloe vera dress mi foot because mi never trust anyone," he said.

But that was not the end of the matter. Vassell told THE STAR that he was later locked up and charged with assaulting a police officer. He spent eight months behind bars.

"My lawyer told me to plead guilty and I was given a year probation, but even with that I was still being terrorised by the cops to the point where I had to leave Kingston and go to Manchester to stay with family. Every minute the police used to come by my house, one a the time a naked mi run out because mi fraid dem kill mi," he said.

Fast-forward two years since his ordeal began, Vassell said that he has difficulty walking and that he can't see properly out of one of my eyes, "because I was beaten badly in prison".

Vassell said although he wasn't fully employed before the shooting incident, his life was much easier as he would often do odd jobs to survive.

"Right now mi can't live so at all, and mi nah stop til mi sue the police who shoot mi," he said.

The incident was probed by the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) but a determination is yet to be made by that body.