Wives of slain cops grope to understand

KINGSTON (JIS):

WOMEN WHO marry policemen always dread the day they could get the cruel news they least want to hear - that their men have died in the line of duty. They live with this reality, hoping that it never comes to pass. And yet if it does, their pain is as sharp and intense as civilians who lose loved ones.

Four months pregnant and still bewildered by the brutal manner in which her husband was killed, 34-year-old Leba Thomas is one of the women who are struggling to come to grips with the reality that they have lost the man they loved and shared with country, during the West Kingston debacle earlier this month.

Leba Thomas will not forget the moment when they brought her news that her 33-year-old husband, District Constable Colin Thomas, was a casualty of the 'war'.

According to police reports, District Constable Thomas was on his way to work at the Rockfort Police Station in East Kingston when he came upon a roadblock on Mountain View Avenue. He attempted to go through it. Within minutes he was dead. Gunmen opened fire on his car which they then set alight and burnt him to death... and beyond recognition.

"I'm hanging on. People say I should hang on for the baby's sake, but it's not going to be the same thing. I can't believe it... I don't know if it's his body, I just have to take what they (police) tell me because it's just black charred remains... I go home and I'm still waiting to see him come home," Mrs. Thomas in hardly more than a whisper.

Her husband of nine years and childhood sweetheart would have celebrated his 34th birthday on July 28.

When asked about funeral arrangements, Mrs. Thomas hesitated... "I'm waiting on the police to carry out the necessary investigation into his killing. But we have no body to bury... we have to burn what is left. There will be no burial, only a memorial service." By now her sobbing was uncontrollable and the conversation came tearfully, abruptly to an end.

Florence Henry, wife of 31-year-old Sergeant Mark Henry who was killed in the line of fire in West Kingston, sat speechless with her right foot bobbing as the tears welled up in her eyes.

She had just viewed her husband's body at the Brown's Funeral Home at North Street, Kingston and had returned, still in a daze, to the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF) headquarters on Ruthven Road, Kingston to complete funeral plans. They were married for seven years.

"As you can see from her swollen eyes, it's hard on her... and the family can hardly cope," Paulette Porteous, mother of the deceased volunteered.

Mrs. Henry's sister relayed the news of his death to her while she was in Brooklyn, New York.

Sergeant Henry, who was transferred from the Mobile Reserve to the SACTF last September, will be buried today at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Brunswick Avenue in Spanish Town. His body will be lie in state from 1:00 p.m. and the service will begin at 2:00 p.m.

Yesterday, District Constable Errol Stephenson of the Rio Bueno Police Station in Trelawny was laid to rest.

District Constable Stephenson who went to clear a roadblock, was hit on the head with a missile believed to be a stone. He died on the spot.

"I can't explain how I'm feeling," said Mrs. Winsome Stephenson, her voice begging for understanding. "Nobody can replace my husband. He was so loving and understanding. No one understood me like him," she moaned.

The union produced two girls, aged 14 and nine. "The big one understands that her father is dead, but the small one is still asking when is Daddy coming home," she said.

Mrs. Stephenson said she had been receiving support from her family and the community at large.

With the families in mourning, the police have been offering counselling services to family members, especially the wives.

Rev. Edgar Henry, one of the chaplains in the Area Three Division (Mandeville) journeyed to Kingston to offer on-going counselling services as the chaplains for the Kingston Division were abroad on training.

The soldier's family was not yet prepared to speak to the media.

- Judith Wilson, JAMPRESS

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