BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A man who claims that he was mercilessly beaten by members of the Delta Squad is bed-ridden at the JNF General Hospital and had to undergo two operations to remove fluids from his body.
On a visit to the hospital, the man, 58-year-old Ronald Hixon, also known as ‘Kulcho’, of Liverpool Row, Basseterre, displayed to SKNVibes several discoloured spots on his back and other parts of his body, which he claimed were the result of kicks inflicted by members of the Delta Squad.
Hixon said that on Saturday (Dec. 24) after he and Revan Hubert had completed their regular early morning stroll along the Bay Road, they decided to sit and chat at the front of Hubert’s Prickley Pear Alley residence.
“While we were talking, Hubie gave me a calabash with some sweet tobacco and asked me to roll a smoke for him. While I was wrapping it I saw some officers coming up the road and they approached us and one of them asked, ‘What you got there?’ So I throw back the sweet tobacco in the calabash that was on the table. Then the officer said, “So you throwing back…you got weed there!” I said no and they told me to stand up and they searched me.
“They didn’t find anything on me. I told the officers that we didn’t have any weed because Hubie did tell me before that he didn’t have any, and if they find any weed he was not responsible for it because it’s an open place and people does sit there all night.”
Hixon said the officers conducted a search and found “a little dust” secreted in a corner of the building and also some green leaves, which he claimed “looked like a setup”.
He claimed that one of the officers said, “What is this here? It look like it just picked.” And that Hubert said he did not know who had left it in his building and reiterated that many people do sit there both night and day.
“The officers said they were going to take us to the station, but I wasn’t taking them on because I know I had nothing. They search my pocket, search my bag in which I had my glasses and they found nothing. Then they say they were going to arrest me, and they shackled me and Hubie together.”
Hixon said while the officers were taking them to a waiting minibus one of them chucked him on his back and, while turning around to rebuke the officer who did the act, either his or Hubert hand may have struck the officer.
“All of a sudden I feel a dropkick in my back and the officer who did it told another officer that I am the father of the soldier that he had a problem with sometime in the past.”
Hixon said that he has two sons in the Defence Force - one is a reservist and the other had recently returned from a training course in Mexico.
“I told him that I will tell my sons what is going on. And he said my sons can’t do him nothing because they are punks and they got they qualifications because they are antiman,” he added.
Hixon also said that when they reached the minibus he kicked the officer because “he first kicked me and anybody who kick me I have the right to kick them back, regardless who it is”.
He alleged that after being placed in the minibus, the said officer boxed and kicked him several times while another one, whom he claimed to be a Jamaican, held a gun to his head and threatened him.
“When they put us in the van, the same officers give me two box and started kicking me. Then a Jamaica man got he gun to my head and he said, ‘We gon kill allyou, we come to kill allyou…that is what deh bring us here for. We is the delta Force, we gon kill allyou.’ Then they carry us to Basseterre Station and shortly after said we are going to Cayon.”
He continued: “While taking us to Cayon, by the time they reached the factory I been getting kicks until I reach Cayon Police Station. I got kicked in my head, my face and the gun was at my throat. The army man hold up my shirt while the same policeman and a clear policeman kicked me repeatedly. So I asked them, ‘Boy is what I do allyou, what you all want to kill me for?’ And the Jamaica man again said, ‘We gon kill you, we come here to kill allyou and teach allyou a lesson.’
Hixon claimed that the minibus was filled with members of the Delta Squad but none of them made any attempt to stop the others from beating him. “They all sit back and enjoy the fun,” he added.
He admitted to biting the finger of one of the officers whose hand entered his mouth while he was being boxed to the head and face.
“All of this took place while the Jamaica man had his gun to my throat and his foot on my chest while I was on the floor of the van. They took turns in kicking me like a ball, and I believe that I got more blows than Jesus before they nailed him on the cross,” Hixon said.
Hixon said that on arrival in Cayon his legs felt weak and the officers dragged him out of the vehicle.
“When we got inside the station they took off the handcuff and I fall to the ground. While on the ground an officer had his foot on my chest and a gun to my head, and the Sergeant at the station, who say that he is a Christian and does come by the Dominion Radio and preach, did not stop them from abusing me. They then dragged me to the door of a cell and then kicked me inside.”
Hixon claimed that he was held at the station for approximately 12 hours without medical attention and was released on station bail sometime after 7:00 p.m. when one of his sons arrived there.
He said that the police had charged him with possession of cannabis and battery, and that he underwent an operation on Tuesday (Dec. 27) to remove fluids from the right side of his chest.
This media house was told that on Friday (Dec. 30) Hixon underwent a second operation for the removal of fluids from the left side of his chest.
SKNVibes learned that Hixon’s sons had filed a complaint to the Commissioner of Police on the matter and an investigation has since been launched.
And SKNVibes was informed by a senior officer that Hixon was charged with possession of cannabis, obstruction under the Drug Act, battery on police and wounding.
