IRONICALLY, on the fateful May day when Reneto Adams and his Crime Management Unit (CMU) swooped down on a house at Crawle in Pennants, Clarendon, the one that got away was the only one for whom they had a warrant — Bashington Douglas aka “Chen Chen”.

Conflicting stories are told of the Pennants incident in which four people were killed by the police during an alleged firefight. Police said Chen Chen escaped during a shoot-out and is being sought. The wanted man said he came upon a police party firing their guns wildly and fled.

In an interview with this writer, Chen Chen sought to give his own version of the incident, and between tears for his fallen girlfriend, Angela Richards, who was among the four killed at Pennants, he weaved a tale of death and violence out of which his reputation as a badman was crafted.

I am directed to him by cell phone. We are in the bushes in deep rural hills seated outside a small shack. His cell phone rings and he says on it, “Carry some rum to”. He pulls on a spliff, pauses and says: “Big man, mi haffe a live like rat, way up ya so. Is whey Adams want mi fah?”

He is 36 years old and claims that he has difficulty with reading and writing. His accent is country bush with little exposure to grammar and syntax. He hangs his head and then the tears start to stream down his face, shamelessly.

“Dem kill mi woman who me love. If a me dem want dem should a just come fe me.”

His eyes become glazed over as he wanders off again in his mind. “When me used to live in Homestead mi used to have a gang, but after a while dem bwoy start get badder than me. Trust mi big man, nuff things inside deh a nuh politics, a just pure turf man a fight over.”

Chen Chen has a 13-year-old son. “Him get threat in Homestead so mi have to move him to country. Just New Year’s Day me go to a dance in Homestead and three men in a car shot at me. That’s why mi go up to Crawle to forget ’bout the politics and leave the badness alone.”

He tells me that there was no extortion involved at the AusJam gold mine, as claimed by the CMU. “Dem give me a contract to watch a river pump. Is a 24/7 contract so me have to employ at least one more man. It pay $60,000 for one month.”

He tells me of a conflict involving two white men who blamed him for damaging a pump when it was their duty to ensure that oil was in it. The men were fired and started the rumour of extortion.

AusJam denied the claims of an extortion scheme and said it had sent home the two Australians because there was no work for them to do.

I had written in my last column that Chen Chen was on the verandah when the police arrived but he tells me that I got it wrong. “I was coming from work when I see a white Hiace bus with a blue streak on it. I saw a man in a red shirt jump out and start fire barrages of shots while more men were coming out of the van. I ran through the bushes to my workplace while shots were still firing.”

“I hid in the bushes and when it get late I screechy behind some houses to see what going on. I saw the police them eating and drinking and laughing with their guns on their shoulders. Then I saw a whole heap of vehicles coming up, including CVM TV.”

He breaks down again while calling his woman’s name “Angie”.

“I hear when one of the man say, ‘fix up de man good nuh man an mek we fix up de woman good’. I did not know that is dead people dem talking ’bout. When they all leave I go up there and see the blood, the gunshot holes all over the place, my one week-old fridge shot up, all my girlfriend jewellery missing, $48,000 in cash missing and then they burn my pay stubs and the $100 and $50 dollar bill dem.

“Big man, a you mi trust. Mi nah talk to nobody else. You have to make an appeal for me. Please, Mr Commissioner, please make protectorates for me and my family. Mr P J Patterson, the Hon Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mr P G Seaga, the Opposition Leader with Mr Bruce Golding and Mr Miguel Lorne, the heads of the country, I Chen Chen is begging you all to intervene in this situation for humanitarian justice,” he appealed.

I can only promise him that it will come out in print and I cannot even promise him that I will make that dangerous trip to see him again. We knock fists and I follow my guide along the narrow, long and winding path through the thick overgrowth of bushes.