Jean Donnelly couldn’t quite come up with words to describe how she felt to be losing yet another son to violence. In 2002 she witnessed first hand an armed intruder invading her home searching for someone. Her pleas to the would-be killer were in vain, and her son Jeremiah Donnelly, 21-years-old at the time, was shot and killed in his bedroom. To make matters worse, it was proven to be a case of mistaken identity, but for whatever consolation its worth, her son’s killer is now serving a life sentence in prison.
This time around, the family of 39-year-old Anderson Donnelly, one of the island’s latest murder victims is on another quest for justice. Donnelly’s body was found on Inner Relief Road, near SLASPA with stab wounds to the chest area this week.
A police press statement revealed that Anderson Donnelly, also known as “Fishy” from Morne du Don, Castries was found lying in a pool of blood, about 1:30am on Saturday, May 21. The RSLPF has since sent out a call for anyone with information concerning the incident to contact the Criminal Investigations Department.
This week when the STAR visited Anderson’s home his mother was visibly distraught and understandably did not say much. When she did she expressed: “All the time Fishy in the streets no one checking for him and now that he’s dead everyone coming around. He was going through hell. It’s
pure evil and wickedness when I look at what happen there.”
Anderson’s family admits he was mentally challenged, but say he was by no means a vagrant. He would go out during the day and never failed to return home at night. His younger brother told the STAR Anderson’s mental issues surfaced about 18 years ago. With his bizarre behaviour his family resorted to checking him into Golden Hope.
“He was just there like a mad man, walking around doing pappyshow, police would hold him, then send him La Toc, to a point when police wound up shooting him,” his younger brother who did not want to be identified said. “They would give him medication and he used to hold himself, until one time he went and they gave him an injection and that just made him worse. He was catching himself with the pills, but the injections would make his mouth water and he really start acting like a mad man.”
While we spoke Anderson’s brother was sitting in an area where he said his older brother normally hung around with other young men from the area.
“My brother was not a dog,” he said. “He didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. I’m sure whoever did it has a mother and family too. They would not like it if that happened to one of their people. The man was a human being too. That was my mother’s first yute, back in the day when he was normal he used to check for fellas. He was troublesome; he went to jail around seven times for giving the police trouble.
“Fishy lived in the house with me the same way, he would be around everyone,” he continued. “He would be there with my children. No one ever treated him like an outcast. When Fishy went out and do his pappyshow, he made sure he came back home. He’s not someone who’d be sleeping in town, or walking and sleeping on the road. He never smoked cocaine, he used to smoke a little weed like everybody.”
A group of young men are said to be suspects in Anderson’s attack. From information gathered, Anderson’s brother says he was told the assailants met up with his brother on the bridge after coming from a party and started fooling around, trying to throw him over the side. They chased after him, a struggle ensued and the 39-year-old was stabbed in the chest. A post mortem revealed the object he was stabbed with struck the main artery near his heart.
One of the comments to the initial story about Fishy’s death on the STAR online that stood one most was written by Commander4T6: “Rest in peace Fishy. I hope your killer is brought to justice. God alone knows what happened to you all these years ago, which perhaps even led to your untimely demise. Maybe you’re now in a better place. At least no more suffering. We need to take mental illness more seriously in St Lucia. More effort must be put into relevant methods of treatment and not just medication, which sometimes does not work for the patients. I’ve seen people in St Lucia suffer with minor depression initially, but never recover from it. Fishy seemed to have lost his mind at some point, but we did nothing to help him. May your soul rest in peace Bro.”
Anderson’s death brings back memories of the death of Davidson Sylvester, the homeless man who was doused with petrol and set on fire years ago. Sylvestor burnt to death near a CDC apartment building in Castries. In that instance it was suspected that a group of teens who’d attacked him before were responsible for his death. No one has been charged in relation to the Anderson Donnelly incident.
Comments are closed.