The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK 

and KEILE CAMPBELL 

Tribune Reporters

RELATIVES of Dishon Russell, one of three men killed at sea over the weekend, are struggling to sleep after losing the 25-year-old in a jet ski accident.

Dishon’s aunt, Carolyn Russell, said the incident reminds her of losing her brother, Dishon’s father, in 2002. 

“At the time I said Lord, I don’t think I could’ve survived that because it was so tragic and sudden, and here it is now 22 years later, almost the same thing, but not quite,” she said. 

None of the men who died over the weekend wore life jackets. 

D’Von Archer, vice president of BASRA Northern Bahamas, said the lack of a “buddy system” and life jackets likely played a role in their deaths. 

In the first incident, two men died, and another was seriously injured after their boat hit a reef near Rose Island early Friday. 

The Tribune understands the injured man, Julian Butler, is a security director at Baha Mar. Sean Laing, vice president of engineering at Baha Mar, and Luke Rolle, a conch salad vendor from Eleuthera, died in the incident. 

Police said the men left a marina on East Bay Street around 6am for South Andros when their vessel struck a reef, and they were ejected. A passing vessel rescued the injured man and brought him to the Harbour Patrol base, where he was taken to the hospital and listed in serious, but stable condition. 

Dishon was on a jet ski around 5pm on Friday when his vessel overturned after encountering a wave. A boater later recovered his body around 9.20am, a half mile off Coral Beach. 

His aunt, Ms Russell, helped care for him after his father died. She said he was like an adopted son, one she helped with schoolwork and took in when he moved back to her house after completing high school in 2019. 

“No one is taking it very well, most people still not sleeping well,” she said yesterday. 

When she first learned about the incident, she was hopeful. 

“But then we found out he was on a jet ski, and, oh my gosh, I was in the house, and I only can go down and lay down, and I couldn’t talk or answer the phone or nothing, just groan and, you know, I just couldn’t handle it and so, I laid down for a couple of hours and hope against hope and we kept getting the calls,” she said. 

She said she was not fond of her nephew’s strong will, adding that he ignored her warnings to wear a life jacket. 

“You used to say Dishon, please, and he’d say okay auntie, but he never did,” she said. 

Ms Russell said when her nephew was discovered, his hands were up, as if he were still holding on to the jet ski. 

“One of my friends said maybe he was praying,” she said. “It’s all a mystery why it happened and had to happen when he was just getting out of a traumatic relationship and lining his life back up with the Lord, getting back to where he had stopped.” 

Ms Russell said she recently received the Mother’s Day gift her beloved nephew had ordered for her and another sister.