News

Another teacher killed

TODAY WOULD HAVE been Delta Bailey's 35th birthday. And, next month would have been her son Jason's 10th birthday. But, death robbed her of that opportunity.

Bailey, a grade two teacher at the Winward Road Primary and Junior High, had her life cut short yesterday by a man who stabbed her in the chest on Sandy Close in Manley Meadows, Kingston.

She became the second teacher to die in less than a week. On Monday, Manning Marsh, the principal of the Boscobel Primary and Junior High School, was also stabbed to death on the school compound.

Bailey's death is a hard pill to swallow for her family. "Everyting happen in a bout 20 minutes. Mi jus reach a work when mi son call mi an' tell mi seh she drop dung. Mi jus spin roun back an' run come up," said Jason Dawson, Bailey's common-law husband. "Mi run an' run das mi even almos' run off mi shoes. Di las time mi run so a when mi son did drop dung. Mi tink seh she drop dung cause dem kill a bredda up so las night an' a it get to har only fi fin' out seh a she dead."

Police reports say Bailey was killed by two men at 10:15 am while at a house of a relative. They said two men entered and demanded a bicycle. When their demands were not met they stabbed her in the chest. She died at hospital.

Residents said Bailey was on her way home when she saw a man entering her sister's home and called oput to him. It is unclear what happened next. But, it was a move that proved fatal.

"Mi son see har pon di groun' because she run lef har slippers an' drop pon di groun' an call him. A so di neighbour dem come out. Mi hear seh di whole time him jus a whole him head," Dawson said as he broke down in tears.

"Him jus seh to mi daddy mi know seh she gone. When mi deh a di hospital mi a look pon har an' she look like she a sleep. Mi jus waan hear har cough fi know seh she alive. How somebody can so dunce man? Him couldn't jus seh gal go weh? How him stay so? She nuh deserve it man. She nuh deserve it."

Dawson told THE STAR he knew Bailey for the past 13 years. He said although they had no money, as a family they were happy and they never left each other no matter where they went. "Everyting a di three a wi," he said in between sobs. "We go watch champs together. We go jog together. We fly kite together. Even Sunday we go walk out. How me a go manage? How mi a go feel when a di two a we alone a go fly kite? A use to three a we. Now a two."

"Mi son use to go to har fi lunch everyday. How him a go feel now when school open back an' a lunch time... She not even live fi si him go to di school weh him choose in a GSAT. Him did waan go KC she not even a go si dat now," he said.

But, words alone cannot capture Dawson's anguish. Even as he looked on his wife's picture minutes before showing it to THE WEEKEND STAR he broke down crying. He was consoled by friends and neighbours. But the crying started again as he passed the house where his wife was stabbed. He cried even louder as he took up her blood stained slippers.

"Wha we a go do? She gone. She nuh deserve it. She nuh deserve it. If she a troublemaker it wouldn't so bad. If she did sick an' drop dung we could a deal wid it. But she nuh trouble nobody. She nuh deserve it," he cried.