Veteran trade unionist suffers bites during attack

Despite bites to his body and some pain in his neck, trade unionist Joseph Burns Bonadie says that he is in good health, after being attacked and robbed over the weekend.{{more}}

Bonadie was relieved of a gold chain and pendant on Saturday, November 26, while standing on Higginson Street in Kingstown, next to the Rio Foods Restaurant, where he is a regular patron.

According to Bonadie, who was speaking to SEARCHLIGHT via telephone on Monday, November 28, sometime after 2:00 pm that day, he was having a conversation with a friend under the gallery of the building, when he was accosted by an unmasked man.

“This guy just walk up in front of me and say ‘Gimme this f*ing chain’ and pull it offa my neck.

“From the time he did that, I scramble him up and me and he start to wrestle up.”

Bonadie, a radio personality, who appears on the WE FM’s Shake Up program, said that even though the would-be robber slammed his head into the building wall several times, he held the man in a ‘vice grip’ that saw both men falling to the ground, then eventually into the gutter where the fight continued.

“He bite me on the shoulder thinking I would let go, but I just take the bite and when I start choking on his neck he let go from the shoulder and he hold on (started biting) the next shoulder… but I wouldn’t let him go.

“Somebody came and try to hold him, but he use the opportunity to get away and take off down the road.”

Bonadie said that the incident was reported to the police shortly after.

He then he made his way to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital where he received tetanus vaccinations.

Efforts to find the individual on his own proved futile, but Bonadie indicated that he received information and assistance from persons from a nearby community.

“Yesterday, a friend reach home by me, and return the pendant for the chain…. A bunch of people come and tell me who it is… but I will forward the information to the police.”

Bonadie indicated that he has since been informed that there were a string of chain snatchings in the area in the past week, and he believes that the perpetrators are targeting that piece of jewelry, because they are easy to grab, and can be easily sold.

The well-known regional activist, who was met with jeers from some persons attending the Teachers Solidarity March in Kingstown two weeks ago, said that it was his quick reflex actions that made him fight off the villain; besides, he was not willing to part with his property without a fight.

“I bought that chain in Peru about 20 years ago; how he could just come and pull that chain off my neck?

“I ain’t go just leave that man to go and do that. Nah, he had to kill me; I ain’t allowing that.”

Up to press time Monday, police were investigating the matter.