ZR folk mourn driver’s death

Gunshot victim Dwayne Forde will be missed by his route taxi family.

Black flags and bandanas hanging from public service vehicles (PSV) in the River Van Stand told of the grief and shock by operators who lost one of their own on Sunday.

Route taxi driver Forde, 33, better known as “Bush”, was shot during an altercation in The City early yesterday morning.

According to police, Forde, of Ruby Park, St Philip, was at the Mad Pub Bar at the junction of Combermere Street and Bay Street. They said they received a report from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital around 5:50 a.m. that an injured Forde had been transported there.

A ZR conductor who gave his name as Michael, said he was with Forde, who usually plied the No. 10 Silver Hill route, when he died.

“I left there early. I didn’t even spend an hour over there [Nelson Street] ’cause I feel a funny vibe. As I come down in a van this morning a man tell me, ‘You hear ‘Bush’ get shoot in he belly last night twice?’,” he said.

“I said, ‘Bush got shot? But he isn’t anybody that looks for trouble’. I couldn’t even believe the man when I heard it for the first time,” he added.

Michael said his PSV colleagues too were shocked. None of them wanted to speak on the tragedy.

“He was a cool and irie man. He wasn’t a man that was disrespectful in any way unless you pushed him. He was always irie. Nice yute man; he was never a harsh person,” Michael continued.

“Right now it’s harsh on ‘nuff’ people; that’s why people don’t want to talk that sort of way. If he was here right now, I could guarantee you he’d be here drinking a brandy or a whisky because he’s that kind of person.”

Family members declined to comment when the NATION visited Forde’s residence. (AD)