HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – Footballer Rakeem DeShields, who made six appearances against Caribbean sides for Bermuda’s Under-20 team, has been charged with unlawfully killing a 30-year-old barman following a fight on Front Street in the island’s capital.
DeShields, 25, appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday in connection with the death of Dejon Simmons, who died last Wednesday, three days after he sustained injuries in the fight.
DeShields, currently a defender with Premier Division champions-elect Pembroke Hamilton Club, was not required to enter a plea because the charge is indictable and must be heard in Supreme Court.
He was released on bail and will appear at the arraignments session on May 1.
DeShields, who first turned out for Bermuda’s Under-20 team back in 2010, made appearances up until 2012 against Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and Haiti.
In 2015 DeShields was named in a 55-man Bermuda training squad in preparation for this year’s World Cup in Russia.
Colleagues of Simmons, a bartender at Front Street restaurant Bolero, have said he will be sorely missed by staff and customers alike.
He joined the restaurant about four years ago starting out as a kitchen porter before training to become a bartender which he had done for the last two years.
