Man who drank hand sanitizer had a hard time – Mom

The mother of Shemmar Baptiste, the Sandy Bay man who recently drank hand sanitizer in court, says her son has struggled with challenges since he was a small child.

Camalin Baptiste said her son was not born behaving strangely, but when he was young, he had a stroke, after which his behaviour changed.

She said water began to run from his mouth and he began to walk strangely, so she took him to see the doctor.

“… When I took him to the doctor, the doctor said that I must keep him away from smoke and if anybody is smoking weed, I mustn’t keep him around them, because like the smoking would affect his brain,” Camalin explained.

Shemmar attended the School for Children with Special Needs for five years and showed little improvement, his mother said.

He then went on to the Sandy Bay Primary School, where he received conditional promotion. He subsequently gained entrance to the Sandy Bay Secondary School, but left in second form.

That, according to his mother, is when he began to smoke marijuana.

She said whenever people provoked him, he would get angry and begin to act up.

“Sometimes, he’s good, good, good and then like when he is around people who is smoking, sometimes I don’t even know how to go with him.”

Shemmar was, on November 20, sent to be evaluated at the Mental Health Centre by magistrate Rickie Burnett, after he displayed abnormal behaviour before Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias at the Serious Offences Court on November 7.

Camalin supports the decision of magistrate Burnett to have her son evaluated.

“I think there is the better, the fittest place for him to go and test. They will know if he crazy, if he mental or whatsoever be the case.

“Right now, I still not feeling right about what he did….but if you trust God, if you love God, he would direct you,” Camalin said.

She told SEARCHLIGHT that she encouraged her son after the court matter at Georgetown to behave himself at the Mental Health Centre.

She said she told him: “Don’t go down there to do anything stupid, ‘cause if you think you don’t have anybody by your side, God is by your side.”(GHJ)