Retired Military Officer beaten by men dressed in red

In an attempt to defend his property from being painted with political signs and slogans, a partially disabled man was savagely beaten by three men.{{more}}

On Tuesday, December, 7, while at his mother’s home in Arnos Vale, retired US Military officer Keith McLean said he was beaten in his face with shovels and about his body with bricks and sticks, all because he told the men not to paint anything on his mother’s wall.

When SEARCHLIGHT visited a heavily battered McLean at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), he complained of breathing troubles as he wailed in agony. He also had a swollen face and bruises to his back and elbow.

McLean, who walks with the assistance of a cane, said while he was at his mother’s home, he saw three guys going around and painting on the walls in the community. Just before they attempted to paint his mother’s property, he said he told them not to paint the wall, and one of the men told him, “Government paid him a dollar to paint the wall”.

“I said ‘No! Don’t paint the wall because this is my property’ and he said, ‘No’,” McLean said.

McLean said he then informed the men, whom he said were clad in red shirts, that he was going to call the police, but noted that the men paid him no mind and placed the can of paint on the ground and proceeded to paint the wall. McLean said he told the men a second time not to do what they were doing, but to no avail. “I took out my cell phone and started to call the police, and with that, he (one of the men) rest the brush down, and as I was trying to dial, he swing up and hit me and knock me on the ground,” McLean recounted.

McLean, who recently underwent surgeries on his neck and back, said his attackers then went for shovels from a nearby house and began beating him. “They start to beat me in my face and back and then grab some sticks and some bricks and started beating me with it,” he said.

Although his mother, who witnessed the incident, pleaded with the men to stop, McLean said the men continued their physical onslaught on him. Luckily, his mother’s shouts for help were heard by neighbours who came out of their houses to see what was taking place. The men then fled the scene and the police were called.

McLean noted that they did not show up even after an hour had elapsed.

McLean said he returned to this country after serving 22 years in the Military. “I returned to live in SVG and I don’t get involved in politics. I came here to have a quiet life,” a soft-spoken McLean said.

Speaking on the spate of violence that has been occurring during the elections, McLean said somebody needs to take a stand and have it stopped. “The violence needs to stop. No one should be going around beating people for their own rights and for their own property,” McLean stated.

Meanwhile, McLean’s wife Jo-ann called for an end to the violence. “This has to stop. Stop sending uneducated fools to be painting on people’s walls,” she said.

“On the day of election, people just need to go and put their X and stop doing this. Come next Tuesday, I still have to feed my family, and It doesn’t really matter who goes there, you still have to feed your family,” she noted.

She beseeched persons not to commit to one man and start committing themselves to God.

Two men should have appeared at the Serious Offences Court yesterday in connection with the incident.