Court told Keith Clarke’s wife, daughter held at gunpoint by soldiers
DR Claudette Clarke, widow of chartered accountant Keith Clarke, and their daughter, who was 18 years old at the time that her father was murdered, allegedly by three members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), were ordered on the ground while rifles were pointed at them.
This was just minutes after the accountant was shot dead when members of the JDF entered the family’s home at Kirkland Close in Kirkland Heights, St Andrew, on May 26, 2010.
The soldiers were part of a team carrying out a search for then fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
Dr Clarke, who is the first witness in the trial which began hearing evidence on Monday, said in her testimony Wednesday: “Two of the soldiers jumped on the bed and opened fire at my husband. I grabbed on to my daughter because I was scared and frightened. I thought they were going to open fire on us as well. I started crying and screaming out. My daughter did the same.”
She said her husband was shot as he tried to come down from the top of a closet in their room. Dr Clarke pointed out that her husband’s back was turned to the soldiers while he held on and tried to come down and that he did not have anything in his hands.
“When they shot him he fell on the ground. I panicked and was screaming. I asked them why they shot my husband. By that time more soldiers were coming in and there were more sounds of gunshots in other sections of the house. They kept coming in and out of the room, so I don’t know how many soldiers were at the house.
“It was difficult for me to look at my husband on the ground, so I don’t remember how he was positioned. Myself and my daughter were told to get on the ground and face down. The gentlemen in the army clothes were still pointing their guns with the lights on us. A man who turned out to be a police in plain clothes appeared and I spoke to him. He said we could leave, so we left. The officer took us out and they found nobody else in the house,” she said.
Dr Clarke said that before her husband climbed on top of the closet, he said he was not going “allow criminals to come inside the house and kill us off”.
On Tuesday, Clarke’s widow told the court that no one stayed with the family at their two-storey house in the week and days leading up to the killing of her chartered accountant husband.
Dr Clarke said that on the evening her husband was murdered, she and her daughter arrived home from a rehearsal at the Little Theatre.
When she got home, neither her husband nor anyone else were at home. Her husband subsequently came home, and asked for something to eat before retiring to bed.
“I went downstairs and made him a sandwich. My daughter was in her room. I went to bed and was in bed for about 10 minutes when I heard a sound like a plane or helicopter. I didn’t pay it any mind at first but the sound was getting closer and closer. I got up and looked through my bedroom window. I saw the helicopter and bright lights shining from it.
“The light was coming from the front of the helicopter. I woke up my husband and told him that something was flying around with a bright light. He got up, looked and then went back to bed but not to sleep. I heard sounds like something was dropping on the house top. I shook him and said, ‘Keith, Keith, get up. Something is dropping on the house’. It was getting more frequent. I also heard sounds at the side of the house like somebody was trying to saw the door. I was scared, wondering what was happening. My husband was looking scared, too. My daughter called the police, the neighbour and our pastor,” she told the court.
The trial continues today.