The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

A 61-YEAR-OLD grandmother was hit in the eye by a rock that her daughter claims was thrown by a thug in an FNM t-shirt.

PLP supporter Rosanna Cash is now considering legal action as a result of her injury that happened during a nomination day parade walkabout with PLP leader Perry Christie.

Mrs Cash’s daughter, who is also named Rosanna Cash, was present when her mother was injured and claimed the rock-thrower was decked in FNM paraphernalia.

She said: “We were walking through McCullough Corner, me and my mother with Mr Christie, and some gentlemen in FNM shirts, they were throwing rocks. My mother got hit in her left eye... her eye has a very bad blood bruise inside of it.”

Her mother said: “I was walking close to my daughter and when we got almost on the turn there from McCullough Corner I saw these things fly cross. I saw the shadow of it fly.”

She said her daughter thought at first that the flying objects were coconuts, so they immediately ducked their heads for safety.

“When I held up my head again and looked, I saw another shadow so I put my two hands over my head and that’s when another lady got hit on her arm with the rock. When I held up my head again and turned left, I saw these two guys on the corner of the house and the only thing I could hear – bap! I got hit right in my left eye and I fell right to the ground,” she said.

Soon after being hit, Mrs Cash said persons around her lifted her up and sat her on a nearby wall.

“The doctor who was on the parade, he took some water and he began to wash my face and then, what made me get really scared, I saw blood coming from my eye,” she added.

Mrs Cash said Mr Christie asked her to go back to PLP headquarters, from where she went to the police to lodge a formal complaint.

“The sergeant who took my statement from me, she asked me if I wanted legal action, and I said, ‘yes man, I can’t let it go like that because I could have lost my eyesight’.”

Mrs Cash said Mr Christie then took her to a doctor for treatment, including several tests to ensure there was no extensive damage to her eye.

“I feel a little bit better, but my eye is still foggy,” she said. “Right now, it is burning me and I can’t face the sun.”

Mr Christie said police were also present during the attack.

He said: “They saw all of that and took immediate action and moved into the area and had patrol cars. They may have, as far as I’m aware, found one or two persons who they think may be associated with the rock-throwing.”

He called it a “dangerous thing” to happen as Mrs Cash could have potentially lost her eye.

“A happy occasion was really marred by that and we then proceeded just to go back to our headquarters because we realised that we had no control over stupid people doing stupid things,” he said.

Mr Christie added: “I have been loathe to describe it as a politically motivated attack but it just so happened we were PLPs marching in colours and someone attacked a PLP parade – that is the factual aspect of it.

“It is something that I decry and something that at all cost leaders must try to avoid happening in our country.”

The attack came on the same day – nomination day – that a group of thugs wearing PLP t-shirts were pictured driving over an effigy of an FNM supporter in the street. Several photographs were taken of this scene, which identified the perpetrators waving Shane Gibson banners. The photos were posted on the PLP’s Golden Gates Facebook. They were later taken down.

The FNM said it was “disappointed” no-one from the PLP’s party hierarchy had condemned the effigy attack - what it called “a senseless act.”

Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest said: “The PLP claims to have some magic solution for crime. But it is now very clear to all Bahamians that the PLP isn’t serious about fighting violence in our country. How can they be if they can’t even speak out against acts that promote violence?”