A resident of the west Kingston community of Hanna Town who is alleging that he was severely beaten by members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is warning that such experiences will lead to animosity towards the security forces.

“At the end of the day if they do this to all ghetto youth is like they are building gunmen because they are not serving and protecting,” 26-year-old Tevin Riley, told the Jamaica Observer.

He said his ordeal started at about 9:15 pm last Wednesday as he and his girlfriend were leaving their yard to go to another a few metres away. They were on their way to see their sick one-month-old baby who was staying with her maternal grandmother.

“My babymother open the gate, saw a JDF truck and about three jeeps. They had young men in the truck. [But] I never found that out until I went in it,” said Riley.

He said that, initially, his girlfriend decided not to leave the premises. Then she reconsidered and began to open the gate. That was when his nightmare began.

“They said [to her], ‘Go back inside, who dah man deh behind a yuh, tell him fi come out.’ She said, ‘Is my baby father’. I followed their instruction and came out,” said Riley who added that he had placed a bag with baby items across his body.

He was about to remove the bag, he said, and hand it to his girlfriend when one of the soldiers told him, “I never tell you to do anything yet or tek off nuh bag.”

He said he walked towards the soldiers with his hands in the air when a member of the JDF team held onto the bag and pulled him into the middle of the road while asking, “Weh yuh friend dem weh fire di shot dem?”

Riley said he immediately told the soldier he had no friends because he was not from the community.

“After I told him that, he hit me in the face with the back of his hand,” the first-time father said.

“My babymother said, ‘What is all a that for? He is not a gunman’,” recounted Riley.

He said when he told the soldier what was in the bag one of them told him he did not want to hear, then ordered him to open the bag.

He said he put his hands in the air while holding baby wipes in his right hand and disposable baby diapers in his left.

Riley further alleged that, while he was trying to replace the items in the bag, the soldier grabbed him and pulled him down the road to an area that was poorly lit. It was not long before he was slapped in the back of his head, he said.

“I fell to the ground on my knees and one of them removed the bag, fling it on my babymother, shoved her in the yard, and close the gate,” said Riley who also alleged that the soldiers pointed their guns at him while one demanded to know where his friends were.

“Before I got a chance to answer is [a lot of] kick and thump. When I said this was unnecessary is a kick that to my left eye. I was on the ground trying to gather myself when I heard my baby mother crying and screaming out ‘Murder’! She came and took me off the ground and took me [to the yard] where we were [originally] going,” said Riley.

But that was not the end of his ordeal.

“By the time I sat in the house and her mother was about to dress my swollen face and black and blue eye, the door was opened. They came for me. Then they pulled me out of the house and kicked off the back door. A policeman who was there this time held me by my waist, pushed me towards the truck. About 17 of us, including a female, were in the truck,” he recounted.

Riley said they were taken to a zone of special operations check point in nearby Denham Town where everyone except him was processed.

He said while he was there waiting to be processed, a female member of the police force told him that when residents are assaulted they should be taken to the doctor before being taken to the base.

Riley said when he asked the policewoman what would be the outcome, she advised him to report the incident.

He added that after waiting for hours, the policeman who had processed the other detainees saw him and said, “What kinda ting dis man? Look pon him face, look pon him eye dem how dem swell up. They need to take this man go a doctor; mi nah process him.”

Riley said he sat under the tent until about 6:00 am when members of a police team took him back to the location where he was picked up.

He said his relatives took him to a private doctor who treated him and placed him on sick leave from the factory where he is employed.

According to Riley, he has reported the matter at the Denham Town police station and the Independent Commission of Investigations.

On Sunday, when the Jamaica Observer contacted Major Basil Jarrett, civil military cooperation officer at JDF, he said he was not aware of the allegation but will look into it.