MONTEGO BAY — Ghanaian national Francis Boateng yesterday went on a bloody, knife-wielding rampage in Rosemount, St James, injuring at least three people and damaging several cars.

During the early-morning melee, the African, who has been in the island for about a year, commandeered one car and kept the police at bay for about 45 minutes before he was forcibly dragged from the vehicle and taken into custody.

According to his countryman and neighbour, Christopher Jeswin Agyeman, Boateng has recently exhibited some signs of mental illness.

“He has some mental problems. He used to tell us he is the son of God and that he had an inspiration. He said these are the last days and he came to deliver a message,” Agyeman said.

He added that contact had been made with Boateng’s relatives in Canada and the United States who had promised to come and get him, but they were unable to get a flight during the busy holiday period.

According to eyewitness reports, yesterday’s rampage began in a gully near a factory along the Salt Spring Road.

Factory employee Ray Clarke told the Observer that he and his co-workers had laughed when they heard someone preaching in the gully. But their laughter quickly died after Boateng’s increasingly hostile behaviour scared away a female customer.

“Him start talk ’bout all of you can die now,” with a African accent. “Him say touch me if you’re a real man, touch me if you’re a real woman,” Clarke said. “So one man a pass and him rush him, and the man run from him. Him rush a next man name Noel and stab up the man. So some people come to him assistance. Him rush the people them and them start run after him. One man drop, so him get several stab and the man them start rush him (Boateng) and beat him but them couldn’t contain him.”

Damian Dixon, who said he was on his way to Farm Heights, was also caught up in the early morning fracas. He told the Observer that while he tried to make his way through the area, Boateng hurled a stone into his car’s windscreen and tried to stab his brother who was a passenger in the car.

But Boateng was not finished and by 9:00 am traffic was brought to a halt as he sat, with blood running down his left arm and face, around the steering wheel of a gray Toyota Corolla.

According to the eyewitnesses, the car was travelling along the road when Boateng hurled a stone in the windscreen, the driver got out and the disturbed African jumped into the vehicle. Residents and passing motorists tried to disgorge him but, fearful that he may have a gun, they finally called the police.

As the car’s alarm and the sirens of police vehicles blared, Boateng sat calmly in the car. The large crowd that had converged on the scene watched as the police tried to coax him out of the blood-splattered vehicle. Despite his surreal calmness, the crowd jumped back, en mass, when he lunged towards the window-shattered passenger door and pushed down the lock.

Ignoring some in the irate crowd’s calls for the unstable man to be shot, the police officers eventually determined that he was no longer armed, sprayed his face with pepper spray, pried his hands from the steering wheel and dragged him from the car by his legs. He was taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital for treatment.

At least one other civilian reportedly sought medical care and a police officer received a bruise to his forearm.

At the end of the drama one policeman thanked the crowd for their co-operation and traffic slowly began to move again.

But Foster was still in shock at the state of his car, which had a smashed windscreen and passenger window as well as a liberal coating of Boateng’s blood.

He ripped a piece of white cloth with thoughts of cleaning away some of the blood but with another look at the extent of the damage, he appeared overwhelmed and gave up.

“There was no way fi get out the boy out of me car. When him start mash it up, me say give me the machete,” he said angrily.

He said the car was insured.