WESTERN BUREAU — Four months after the case file was submitted, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is yet to make a ruling on the shooting death of Dave Steele, alias “Bald Head”, who was shot dead in Falmouth, Trelawny last December.

Steele’s mother, Olga Wallace, told the Observer this week, the five months since her son’s death has been like a “living hell”, as she struggles to come to grips with her son’s death.

“I don’t even eat food properly. I don’t even know how I live. I want the DPP to (make) haste with the case because right now I can’t live it out not hearing anything,” the grief-stricken mother told the Observer Wednesday afternoon, as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Wallace said the reality of her son’s death has become increasingly difficult to deal with, not having him around on Mother’s Day, being celebrated tomorrow.

“On Mother’s Day, he might not have a $1,000 or $5,000 to give me but I would see him arrive with something. Now it’s coming on to Mother’s Day and I can’t see him anymore.”

Steele was shot and killed at about 9:00 pm in the vicinity of Washy Bar along Falmouth Street on December 14, six days short of his 25th birthday.

His death sparked a protest in Falmouth as residents blocked roads and demanded justice for the “innocent youth”, who they said had been shot by the police without cause.

According to the police, Steele was driving without a licence along Duke Street when they signalled him to stop. However, he reportedly sped away and they gave chase.

When they caught up with the car along Falmouth Street, the police alleged that two men alighted and ran from the vehicle and that in response they fired warning shots and Steele was hit.

He was later pronounced dead at the Falmouth Hospital.

In the protest that followed, however, residents insisted the police version of the incident was a lie.

They admitted that Steele was driving without a driver’s licence and that he had in fact driven away from the police. But they insisted that no one had run from the car and that Steele was shot in “cold blood” as he got out of the car with his hands up.

At the same time Wallace said her son did not keep friends and claimed there was no one in the car with him at the time of the incident.

She added that her son who was a market vendor was on his way to collect $5,000 from a sister he had in the market at the time. The $5,000, she said, was to be used to repair a Lada motorcar she had given him to transport his goods to market.

“On December 15… I get to understand that a police had shot my son. I went to Falmouth to inquire why. The only thing I can hear to this day is that he was driving without a licence. I cried and I am still crying. He was so quiet and nice. I want the police or somebody to tell me why they have to kill him. If even he was driving without a licence, why they have to kill? I want something to happen. I want justice.”

Added Steele: “When this little boy was born he weighed two pounds, two ounces and we fight fi keep him alive. We called him ‘come fi tan’ (stay) when he was small and to see him dead six days before his birthday. He don’t thief, him didn’t rape, they didn’t find him with any ganja, he didn’t have a gun, but I can’t see him any more,” lamented the distressed mother.

“There are so many gunmen out there living happily, yet my innocent son was murdered by the police,” she added, saying that she hoped it would not be one of the cases thrown aside.