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Published: Sunday, January 13, 2008
Glenroy Sinclair
Assignment Coordinator
I
T WAS 5:15 in the morning and an
ambulance and a minivan were already
parked in the darkness, waiting in the
volatile community of Southside, Central
Kingston, to transport a group of men
to the military range in Green Bay, St.
Catherine.
But not all the men who were recruited
and had agreed to go, made the trip. Some
were still asleep, a few had declined to take
the ride in the ambulance, while others
who had become suspicious of the mission,
stayed away when the transport arrived.
Most of those who were supposed to
go, retired to bed late the night before the
bloody incident because they went to the
now defunct Palace Theatre to watch the
movie
Honour Thy Father
.
“It was my bigger brother who was
supposed to go, but when the ambulance
and minivan, came he was still asleep, so
I took his place,” recounts Ian Brown, one
of the five survivors of the controversial
Green Bay Massacre.
BAD LUCK
Danny Roots, who was originally
supposed to go on the journey, became
upset when he saw the ambulance and
changed his mind. He tried to persuade
his dreadlock friend, Trevor Clarke, alias
‘Gold Eye’, not to go, telling him that it
was “bad luck fe dreadlocks travel inna
ambulance”.
Delroy Griffiths, alias ‘Jadda Brag’,
was 23 years old at the time, unemployed
and had two children to support. His name
was not among the recruits. However,
the morning the transportation arrived,
he made sure he got a seat in one of the
vehicles.
“Me neva did a work at de time and me
decided that me nah beg nobody nutten. Me
hear seh a work de man dem a get, $500 a
week. Me did want a work, so me mek sure
seh me get a seat inna de vehicle,” Griffiths
tells
The Sunday Gleaner
.
GREEN BAY SURVIVORS
REMEMBER 30 YEARS
AFTER THE MASSACRE