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David Reid, a jovial tailor who loved his rum, died a terrible death last Friday after he was boxed to the ground, allegedly by a teenager who was engaged in an argument with a shopkeeper in Pisgah, a community located some 30 minutes from New Market in St Elizabeth.

Reid, 68, who is known as Bull, reportedly intervened in a dispute between the teenager and the shopkeeper, who was trying to get the youngster to pay her $100 for a bottled water he had purchased.

According to the New Market police, the teenager told the shopkeeper that he had already paid the money to her nephew, but the elderly woman demanded that she wanted her payment. Reid, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol, intervened and instructed the teenager boy to pay his bill. It is alleged that the furious youngster hurled a bottle at the now deceased. The missile missed its mark. It is further alleged that the youngster approached Reid and shouted at him to keep out of his business. He reportedly then landed a vicious box to the face of Reid, who fell to the ground and hit his head on the pavement.

Mi shock

He died on the scene.

Reid’s elder brother, Abraham, was with his brother when the incident occurred.

“Mi seh mi and Bull stan up outside the shop, and even when the little fuss a gwane, mi stand up a talk to some other man. Mi shock as mi tun mi back di bwoy box dung mi bredda,” Abraham told THE STAR.

“Until now mi caah believe wha really tek place,” Abraham said as he sat on his brother’s verandah in disbelief.

“Bull naah trouble people, him jus do him little tailoring and drink him rum. If him tell the bwoy fi pay the woman fi di water, him nuh haffi box him fi dat. All him should do a pay him bill an cool himself.”

Reid’s younger brother, Nehemiah, who operates a cookshop in the community, told THE STAR that just minutes before the incident, his brother stopped by his shop and informed him that he would sew some buttons on a pants for him the following day.

“My bredda was a jovial person, him have him three children who him love and is a man who love him rum bad bad.”

Deputy Superintendent Leroy Minott told THE STAR that the youngster is in custody but has not been charged.

“The matter is being investigated. What will happen is we will record statements from witnesses and submit a file to the clerk of the court of the parish for ruling,” he said.