GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland – Last Wednesday before he left for work, District Constable Richard Cross read his Bible and prayed – something he had not done in “a little while”, his wife Shernette told the Sunday Observer.

Later that day, Cross was giving thanks to God after coming close to being chopped to death by a mentally ill man.

“Mi just have to give thanks to the Almighty God. If it wasn’t Him, I would be dead now,” Cross, 41, told friends and colleagues on the compound of the small Morgan’s Bridge Police Station in this north-western district.

According to the police, Cross and a colleague responded to calls by residents in the nearby Geneva community at about 3:40 pm that a man, presumably of unsound mind, had chopped a resident all over his body with a machete.

On reaching Geneva, less than a mile from their base, the mentally ill man was spotted by the cops.

Cross reportedly told the man to drop the machete, but instead he attacked the cops. Cross’ colleague ran a little distance away but Cross was cornered by the machete-wielding man who inflicted several wounds to Cross’ head, hands and fingers.

During the assault, Cross said he and his colleague fired several shots, hitting the man.

“After mi give him the first shot him still come down on me and chop me and when mi give him the second one him chop mi on mi hand and him was just down on me with the machete until mi drop,” said Cross.

“When mi drop, me have to take another gun and shoot him; and then the corporal (his colleague) shot him. that’s how come me survive out the storm,” Cross added.

The injured cop and the mentally ill man were taken to hospital were Cross was treated and released, while the man was pronounced dead.

“Mi can’t say a skill mi skill, I know that it is the work of the Father,” said Cross. “When mi drop, God assisted me to regain my balance. it is the wickedest thing I have ever gone through,” added Cross, who has been a district constable for 11 years.

His wife Shernette Cross agreed that God had a hand in her husband’s near brush with death.

“A God save him,” she told the Sunday Observer.

cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com