Bravery, quick response of trainee police officer saves Fisherman’s Day

The quick actions of a trainee police officer saved Fisherman’s Day from a possible altercation, after he wrestled a cutlass from an angry man who was trying to fight another.

Remus Johnson was observed by SEARCHLIGHT at the Kingstown Fish Market on Fisherman’s Day, around the time that the weighing of fish was being completed, endeavouring to get a cutlass away from one man who was commenting about not being a “p**sy”.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, Johnson said that having worked at the Fish Market for about three months, he knows both men, who are fishermen, who were embroiled in this disagreement.

“I tried to talk to the two guys tell them, you know, you guys wanted the event in town, now you have it in town,” he recalled. “You’re going to try to, you know, close it (Fisherman’s Day) down” Johnson said, remembering how he appealed to the men, “and then they’re gonna say ‘you see why it’s better to have it out Calliaqua, because they had an incident or whatever.” Using this logic he tried to calm down the situation.

When the man came back with the cutlass, the policeman chose to take it from him, as he didn’t see any other options. Johnson was able to get the cutlass away from the man.

Throughout this incident, the trainee officer said that he did not think about getting hurt.

He, himself, did not want the event to be closed down because he knew the fishermen wanted it to be there.

Both angry men went their own ways after this.

The man who may have been chopped if the police officer had not been present, nicknamed ‘Beef’, explained that the other man in the altercation works on the same boat as him. ‘Beef’ alleged that his problem began after the other man took all the fish eggs. He commented that he had wanted his share of the eggs, and warned the other man against greediness and “lickrishness”.

He said that the situation did not get worse because the officer held the cutlass and spoke to the other man.

“Yeah I thankful because I don’t know where the situation woulda end up,” he commented.