‘I’m not going to leave my machete’

As the community of Bath, St Thomas, grapples with fear as fugitive Davian Bryan remains elusive, the police have given the assurance that the search for the suspected child abductor continues.

Commanding officer of the St Thomas Police Division, Superintendent Allison Byfield, told The Gleaner that the team has employed new strategies in its attempt to apprehend him.

“We are still hunting Bryan in the Bath and other areas. We have extended our search to Portland, where he is from, but we are concentrating our efforts in the St Thomas space because we honestly believe, and our intel is telling us, that he remains in the space,” she said.

The local authorities have led a two-week-long multiagency search for the man implicated in the abduction of two girls – a nine-year-old and a 13-year-old – in Bath in mid-October.

Though the number of persons on the trail has dwindled, Byfield maintained that the efforts of the police remain concerted.

“We have not gone cold as it relates to the hunt for him,” said Byfield.

Bryan was on bail for rape and firearm charges in Norwich, Portland. As a condition of his bail, he was ordered by the court to reside outside of the community for the victim’s protection.

The brutality of the alleged July 11, 2020, attack for which he has been charged offers chilling insight, if true, into the suspect’s capacity for violence.

The victim, who, reportedly, had known Bryan for more than 19 years, was entering her home in Norwich around 3 a.m. when the accused pressed metal against her head and ordered her to open the door, prosecutors have alleged.

Bryan is accused of raping the woman three times, according to documents seen by The Gleaner.

Before leaving the complainant’s house, Bryan is alleged to have threatened her and her family.

“If yuh talk and dem ketch mi, mi a guh mek mi people dem deal wid yuh, yuh son, and yuh family,” he is reported to have said.

Bryan is said to have placed the gun he was carrying under a pillow during the alleged sex acts.

Regarding the Bath abductions, Byfield said that Bryan would be subject to an identification parade as the child victims have used only his alias, ‘BlackOut’, to describe him.

The minors, who have been undergoing medical care since their rescue, are to be transferred to a safe house until the suspect is detained. Both have shared that they were held from behind and threatened with a knife to their neck.

Admitting his belief that Bryan may have fled Bath by now, resident Author Clayton shared that he is still keeping an eye out for the suspect.

“Weh day mi did up and down and all bout looking for him, but from them find the next girl, mi nuh really go back in the bushes, but I work on the riverside, so I still on the lookout, looking up in trees and so forth,” said Clayton.

“Though mi nuh think he is still in the community, but they will catch him.”

Expressing fear that the abductor may attack again, another resident, Omar Minott, told The Gleaner that he will not rest easy until the suspect is held.

“I’m not going to leave my machete or knife when walking with my children, and I will never stop until they find this boy and get my mind at ease so my babies can start walk freely as how they normally would,” said the father of three.

“We cannot live with him, so we have to continue searching.”

Encouraging security personnel to continue accompanying residents on the manhunt, Minott warned that civilians unused to combat might become prey if they engaged with Bryan.

The images of machete-wielding residents have sparked urgings from the police for restraint, especially after Levi Chambers was mobbed to death in Llandewey, St Thomas, on October 20 in what is believed to have been a case of mistaken identity.

shanna.monteith@gleanerjm.com