North East La Penitence man Matthew Scott died shortly after he was shot on Tuesday night after rushing to the aid of his sister and a neighbour, who were attacked by armed robbers just a few houses from where they reside.
Scott, a Banks DIH employee, had at the time been responding to the screams of his neighbour Maureen Bristol, 65, who was in the company of his sister Simone Scott. The two were walking home at the time.
Scott was only recently married to wife Cassandra and the two were expecting a child together.
Bristol, 65, of the Alliance Security Service had been armed with a knife at the time of the attack and had tried to fend off the perpetrator.
“Whilst we were walking we see two young men coming towards us so when they near to reach I ask Simone, who’s those two scallywags? By the time I seh so the first one come to me.”
Bristol said she wielded her knife as soon as he approached her. The woman related that she always walks with a weapon.
“And I do suh and he duck and go back suh and Simone run in the yard and he run behind Simone, teking off she chain and start a cuffing cuffing. And I start a hollering and I hear they fire shot and I run and I run in a yard and when I run in a yard he come, pow! Behind me.”
The woman said she began hollering “Murder! Thief! Maureen!” calling out for Scott’s mother, who is her namesake. She had run into a yard a few doors away.
Bristol recalled that Matthew came running out with brick in hand when he was shot in the chest by the man that had attacked them. All that time, the man’s accomplice had never advanced toward them.
“One stay back, he ain move atall. The one in the white jersey ain come forward, meen see he face. This red one here come to front cause remember he had the gun. He come to front. He do everything, he shot she, he shot at me and then he kill she brother.”
Mathew’s nephew, Jamal Scott, 20, had also responded to the cries for help. Scott had been downstairs at the time attempting to access the family’s salon. He related that his uncle came behind him but had run ahead.
When shots were fired, Jamal ran back into the yard to seek cover. His uncle, however, had not been spared.
Scott collapsed in front of his home after being shot to the chest by one of two assailants, who made their escape in a dark coloured 212, which had been waiting up the road from where the robbery occurred.
Ironically, Bristol recalled, just before the attack she had advised the young woman to place her cellphone in her bag because bandits were prevalent in the area and had stated that the only way she would back off in such a situation would be if her assailants were armed with a gun.
“As we walking in, I telling she, I seh girl , they goh get a gun, then I gon back off. Last night I telling she duh. Just before it happen. Just before, words got weight and moulding power.”
Although both women had cellphones on them at the time, the only thing taken in the scuffle was Simone’s chain.
