Young athlete stabbed

Ozari Williams was just days away from heading off to further his education in Jamaica, when his aspirations to become a professional athlete and coach were cut short by an attacker’s knife.{{more}}

Williams was stabbed in his left side last Thursday, August 13th, in Kingstown, just two days before he was scheduled to leave this country to take up studies at the GC Forster College of Physical Education and Sport in Angels, Spanish Town, Jamaica.

“It’s a hurtful thing. I was just about to follow up on dreams and become a professional athlete. I am very disappointed,” Williams lamented while warded in the Male Surgical Ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old former student of the St. Martin’s Secondary School and the St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua is nevertheless grateful that he still has life and says that sometime in the future, he may pursue his goals in track and field.

Williams’ life changed following a brief argument with another individual last week Thursday night at about 9:30pm.

According to the athlete, he and his younger brother were assisting their mother Marlene Jack at her icebox at Little Toyko, when they were approached by a young man asking for change for ten dollars.

“My brother gave him two fives but he still came to me for five dollars. I gave it to him, then my brother told me that he had already changed the money.”

“I call the guy back and we had a argument over the change. I told him to give me back my change and I will give him back his money; I gave him his money and he throw my money on the ground,” Williams recollected.

Williams said that following a further exchange of words and some pushing between the two, the man left the area after being chastised by persons standing around, only to return shortly afterwards and inflict the stab wound.

Williams was rushed to the hospital where he was treated and up to press time still a patient.

The 100 and 200 meters sprinter, who is currently employed at the Department of Physical Education and Sports indicated that it would be at least a year before he would be fully healed and able to return to the racing track or take up studies overseas.

Meanwhile, 31-year-old Andy Cromwell, a labourer of Diamonds was arrested and charged on Tuesday, August 18th for unlawfully and maliciously wounding Williams. He was not granted bail because Williams is still a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.