Regret lingers for Bath good Samaritan
Published:Friday | March 25, 2022 | 12:08 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Shame and regret are sentiments that sum up the last five months for the Bath, St Thomas, woman who invited Davian Bryan to stay with her as condition of his bail pending his judicial fate in neighbouring Portland.
What began as acceptance of a pitiful request from a friend for a new place of abode for the troubled Bryan turned out to be a life-threatening move.
Bryan, the fugitive suspected of having abducted two girls aged nine and 13 in Bath, in October 2021, was arrested on Wednesday in the district of Durham, Portland.
Bryan, 32, is on firearm and rape charges and is believed to have attacked a woman in Durham earlier this month.
The benevolent Bath woman, whose identity The Gleaner will not reveal because of security concerns, said Thursday that she was happy he has been caught and that some semblance of normality can return to her life - and the community.
“Mi glad, glad, glad. Mi jus’ a tell mi friend say mi couldn’t sleep last night the way mi glad. Mi glad because we never want to run up and down again,” she said.
Before that joy, however, the woman had to flee her School Lane home in fear because she believed that her life and the safety of her children were under threat. She regrets giving Bryan a chance.
“Mi could lose mi life. Mi coulda lose me granddaughter, mi daughter, and all mi son. See the window deh dem burn up,” she said, recalling an arson attack.
She left the community after the October incident and did not return until January this year.
While she was away, her home was constantly being searched by the police.
She recalls how her son was almost killed when he went back to the house to recover property.
“Mi son brave and come up fi some clothes, and him say when him in deh, a pure police. Dem coulda come shoot him say a him because dem ask him weh him deh,” she said.
The woman has lost the trust of her friends, neighbours, and other members of the community, some she has known for more than 30 years.
“Nuff a dem nuh talk to me; all if somebody a pass the yard. A lady a pass weh day with her granddaughter and said, ‘Don’t run leave me ‘cause mi nuh want nobody come take you weh’,” the woman said.
She told The Gleaner that before the incident, she had no issue with Bryan, who became friends with everybody in the community.
When she first heard of the nine-year-old girl’s abduction, she was horrified.
“Him could grab my child, too, because him deh here and him and everybody all right,” she said.
Even before the community got wind of the allegations involving the abduction of the first child, Bryan’s name was shrouded in controversy over claims that he had attacked a woman at the river.
“Mi say to mi daughter say him can’t come back inna this yard, you know. Same time the woman man come fi chop him up. We a wait and can’t see him. We only see a man come and say a youth round yah report and pickney missing,” she said.
The woman said she began to question her decision to bring him to the community.
“What kind of problem this mi put miself inna? And mi daughter dem gone search. Mi hear di people dem a say dem a go kill we, so me jus grab my little granddaughter,” she said.