The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was fatally electrocuted yesterday morning while working on air conditioning repairs on a small yacht docked at the Joseph Alfred Dock in the Bay Street area.

Relatives and friends have identified the victim as Shervin Brennen. He is believed to be in his late 20s.

Police said they were alerted to the accident after 10am.

“Sometime after 10, police were called to the Joseph Alfred Dock situated on Bay Street,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters told reporters at the scene. “On their arrival, they were directed to a small yacht where they went to the engine room of that yacht and found the unresponsive body of a male lying over an engine bay.

“The information is that while he was doing some repairs, he complained of being electrocuted and moments later, his colleagues went into the engine room and examined him and he was unresponsive.

“The Emergency Medical Services visited the scene and following their examinations, they pronounced the body lifeless.”

According to the victim’s boss, Anthony E Knowles, Brennen was inside the yacht working on the vessel’s air conditioning system with another colleague before the incident happened.

Mr Knowles, who also owns the yacht in question, said he was not present during the accident, but was notified by another employee shortly after it happened.

Mr Knowles said when he found Brennen, he no shirt or shoes on, something he said was quite unusual as Brennen often reminded others about the importance of wearing proper safety gear at work.

“We went down in the hold in the boat and he was laid across and apparently, he had no shoes on, no shirt on and I don’t know why because he always preached to everyone else about wearing the proper footwear and this morning, he ain’t had no footwear on,” he told reporters at the scene.

“He was still getting shocked. The body was still getting shocked. You couldn’t touch him. No power was on. So, it’s apparently batteries… that’s a lot of energy and with him not having no shirt on, not having no shoes on, he became a conductor for electricity.

“When we grabbed the body, he was still having electrical charge coming through him. No power was on, just the batteries.”

The businessman added he tried everything in his power to save him, but his efforts still proved fruitless.

“I began doing CPR until the paramedics showed up. I worked so hard to try to save him,” Mr Knowles said. “I had the AED (automatic external defibrillator), but it wouldn’t go off. They came and they said it’s because he had no pulse so that’s why the AED wouldn’t go off so they (said) you need a pulse and I figured it’s about seven maybe eight minutes before I got here and called Doctors Hospital.

“No ambulance was there. I Called 911. I (was) racing to get here. They called the paramedic from PMH and they got here about 15 minutes later. They actually pulled me off of him trying to do the CPR.”

Having known Brennen for over 13 years, Mr Knowles said he is saddened by his loss and will miss him.

Similar sentiments were shared by the victim’s aunt, Kadisha Saunders, who described him as a loving and quiet person who loved to work.

She said: “You don’t get much from him. He was always to work. He worked here on the ‘pirate ship’ for a long time because his mom is employed with them also. He worked every day and he liked to dress up so it’s really sad and I mean especially just now when his body been taken away.”

She said his death has affected the close-knit family, who is still recovering from the loss of another relative.

“I was heartbroken because I know what it is for a mother to lose her child and we are a close-knitted family,” Ms Saunders told reporters. “I pick his mom up and drop her to work so when it comes to them. . .we have that family bond. If you cut one, all of us bleed. So, I know what it is she’s going through.

“This is a second experience with death in our family but younger nephews and stuff and it’s hard. We’re just recently trying to get over my son’s death and we still isn’t over that as yet but for this, it’s like a shocker.”