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Family stunned as welcome party for brother descends into funeral plans

Published:Saturday | September 17, 2022 | 12:09 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Smoke rises from the back of the Belvedere home of a man accused of chopping three people with a machete in Red Hills, St Andrew, on Friday. One of the victims succumbed to his injuries. It is believed that angry residents set fire to the pig pen behind th
Ian Allen/Photographer
Smoke rises from the back of the Belvedere home of a man accused of chopping three people with a machete in Red Hills, St Andrew, on Friday. One of the victims succumbed to his injuries. It is believed that angry residents set fire to the pig pen behind the house in retaliation. The fire later spread to the house before it was put out.

Two days ago, Phillip ‘Dolphus’ Bennett was having a party with his relatives in the Walkers Hill area of Red Hills, St Andrew, celebrating the visit of a brother from overseas. Today, the family is planning his funeral.

Described as a quiet and hard-working man, Bennett was standing on the roadway about 7 a.m. on Friday, waiting to accompany his spouse to the bus stop when he was chopped by a machete-wielding man.

Two other persons were injured in the attack.

The 74-year-old mason was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect, a man said to be of unsound mind from the neighbouring Belvedere Drive, was taken into custody.

Up to late yesterday, the victim’s family was still in shock.

“At this point, everybody is hypertensive now,” Bennett’s niece, Carla Lewis, told The Gleaner.

Bennett’s six children and other relatives are hoping that the man responsible for his death will be brought to justice.

“He doesn’t go out unless he has to. He goes to work and then comes home. My uncle go work, come a him yard. If him need fi get a drink him, go ‘cross the bar and buy him rum and come back over,” Lewis said.

Residents say the suspect is a self-proclaimed obeahman, who moved to the area about two years ago and is often seen walking with a machete.

“He has always had a machete. He has never done something like this before, but he always had a machete and had on a water boot,” one person told The Gleaner.

Angry residents are suspected to have set his pigpen that contained a single animal ablaze in the aftermath of the attack. The fire later spread to his house.

Head of the St Andrew North Police Division, Superintendent Shericka Service, said the suspect is yet to be charged.

She is appealing for witnesses to give written statements to the police.

“One of the main focus of the investigation is to get witnesses to come in and say what they saw. When we went on the scene, persons were saying what they see, but to actually get it written, that’s the challenge,” she told The Gleaner.

Up to September 14, the St Andrew North Police Division had recorded 44 murders, three more than for the corresponding period in 2021.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com