After Son’s Return, Cameron Usher Sr. ‘Goes Off’ on Police

It’s more than twenty-four hours since seventeen-year-old Kelvin Usher emerged from the bushes near Lucky Strike where he went missing and returned to his family in the city.  While Belizeans are expressing relief at the safe return, the narrative of his friends and family desperately searching for him after he went missing during a Gang Suppression Unit raid, only for him to turn up alive and mostly unharmed, appears to be incredible for some, however. There remain serious questions as to how Kelvin’s father Cameron Usher happened to be at the spot where his son came out of the bushes with no more than a few scratches. How was Kelvin able to find his way back to the same area where he had separated from his father when the guns blazed on Sunday? How was he able to find the farm where he got food on Thursday morning before resuming his journey to reunite with his family? And there is much more. At Thursday night’s vigil, News Five spoke with “Ras Ruben,” as Cameron is known. While he wants Kelvin to tell the story when he is ready, the elder Usher maintains that things could have gone much differently and that a fundamental injustice in society must be challenged. Aaron Humes reports.

Cameron Usher Sr.

Cameron Usher Sr., Father of Kelvin Usher

“He gave a statement already and I plan fi mek the youth talk the story weh happen, mek dehn people understand that you have your own mind fi know who di lie and who tell the truth and the reality of the truth will always come to light, you understand? When the incident happened, it was the amount of rounds that were fired that created the alarm, the panic in my son. Whe mek ih run till ih can run no mo, and when he reach a point and he still hear gunshot, he run till ih reach a spot where he can’t find a way out, you understand? And weh he gone through from deh, he would have to explain it to you.”

Aaron Humes, Reporting

That is as close as Cameron Usher Senior came in our ten-minute interview on Thursday to addressing the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and return of his seventeen-year-old son. Left to be explained is how Kelvin Usher managed to elude not only authorities but those who searched for him these past four days and why he did not come out sooner. At Thursday’s press briefing, the Officer Commanding Professional Standards Branch, ACP Chester Williams, gave some further insight as to how Kelvin survived the ordeal of four days in the bushes near the Old Northern Road.

Chester Williams

ACP Chester Williams, O.C. Professional Standards Branch

“In my discussion with him, he basically said that he only drank water and had nothing to eat. It was not until this morning that he actually got something to eat when he came upon a farm and he said he shouted and the owner of the farm came out and he ask the owner of the farm for something to eat and he was given tomato, berries and coconut and that was what he ate this morning before he was found. Prior to that based on his own account he ate nothing other than drinking water.”

Reporter
“Anybody out there and in the wilderness for surviving on water for three days would be weak, would be emaciated. Is that the appearance that this young man had?”

Kelvin Usher

ACP Chester Williams
“From my view of him, he do not appeared to be weak, but so as not to be underestimating his condition, I have directed that he be taken to the doctor to be examine to ensure that he gets some level of medical attention or some level of medical examination just to ensure that he is good health.”

Reporter
“Did you get an idea as to day by day what it was that he was doing out in the bushes? Where he slept and how he kept himself alive basically out there?”

ACP Chester Williams
“Yes I did, but I really and truly do not want to go into too much details where that is concerned.”

Usher, meanwhile, directly accused authorities of attempting to wipe out his and his son’s lives to advance what he believes is a nefarious agenda regarding the production of the Rastafarian “holy herb” – cannabis. Needless to say, he does not accept their attempts to save face.

Cameron Usher Sr.

“Our community di face continuous terror, to the point where dehn di look fi kill me and my son, fi some hundred and twenty-one plants weh deh charge me fa. And my son scar up right now, deh ina di jungle fi four days, because dehn people scare my son to the point where he think dehn done kill me and about to kill him, so ih run fi ih life. Unu noh even undastan that? Try fathom that – try put yourself ina dah position weh some gunshot fire and you run ina di jungle and get lost, and dehn you undastan if this weh unu di do, warrant weh unu di do.  Dehn no have no remorse fi dis incident; in fact, dehn cohn justify this incident! And dehn feel like dah wah joke, and dehn feel like I cohn incite people, when I come give people wah insight into weh di happen! I noh di try create problems, I di try create a solution.”

Usher was full of fire and invective, replacing his days of worry, but all’s well that ends well.

Cameron Usher Sr.

“Weeping cometh in the night, but joy cometh in the morning. So when my brethren “Praises” come and “Praises” seh Ruben, I got wah message fi yu; and “Praises” di stan up deh and the message come with strength from through waves, noh through “Praises” mouth, I know Jah Rastafari is the Almighty, because seconds after everything happened. And my son, weh everybody mi di look fi chant and lose faith in his life, life came right back. And everybody see that our faith, weh we have together, as a people, more stronger than anything. So I want people to have more faith in what they believe in for themselves and come out and support weh we di deal with right now.”

Aaron Humes reporting for News Five.