Keith Clarke’s widow recalls night of terror

Holding back tears, Dr Claudette Clarke yesterday recalled witnessing her husband, Keith Clarke, being shot in their bedroom, allegedly by three soldiers while climbing backwards down the closet where he had gone to hide after hearing persons breaking into their Upper Kirkland Heights home in St Andrew.

The retired senior education officer also testified that her husband of over 30 years was shot in front of their teenage daughter, a sixth-form Immaculate High student at the time, who had been crying and praying with her during the deadly ordeal.

The 63-year-old chartered accountant was shot 21 times during a military raid at his home on May 26, 2010.

Three soldiers, Corporal Odel Buckley, Lance Corporal Greg Tinglin and Private Arnold Henry, who were charged with murder in connection to the shooting, are currently on trial in the Home Circuit Court before Justice Dale Palmer.

Dr Clarke, who is the first witness to take the stand, yesterday recounted the frightening ordeal that unfolded on the night her husband was killed in their master bedroom on the top floor of their two-storey house.

Before her husband was shot, she said she and her daughter had taken cover in the bedroom but decided to come out after hearing the bedroom door being cut off.

WITNESS ACCOUNT

“At that point, I said, ‘Britney, let us go there and identify ourselves and beg for mercy’,” Dr Clarke said while noting that as she opened the door three men dressed in army gear, with their faces covered, stepped in the room.

“I identify myself, I said, ‘My name is Claudette Clarke, I am a JP. I live here with my husband, Keith Clarke and my daughter’. But before I could finish the sentence, dem sey ‘Wey him deh’.”

At that moment, she said her husband was climbing down the closet with his back turned to them and his feet on the window and, as she turned to point at him, one or two of the soldiers jumped on top of the bed and started firing at him.

“After my husband was already shot and was lying on the ground they asked where de rest a gunman dem deh,” Dr Clarke testified.

Asked by the prosecutor if her husband had anything in his hand or had said or done anything, Dr Clarke responded with an emphatic “No”.

Responding to further questions, she said the soldiers did not introduce or declare themselves when they entered the room.

Dressed in a black polka dot skirt suit, the witness, who had appeared very subdued at first, testified that on the night of the incident, she and her daughter came home from a dance recital about 8, and that they both showered and retired to bed after eating something.

Dr Clarke said her husband came home about an hour later and enquired about dinner but she told him that she did not prepare any, as she was out late and was tired. But the witness said after seeing the sad look on her husband’s face and feeling guilty she went to make him a sandwich, which he had in the bedroom.

She said her husband went to sleep before her and while she was about to doze off, she heard a sound like a plane or a helicopter, which she ignored at first but noticed after the sound kept getting louder, forcing her to look through her window.

“When I looked through the window I saw a plane or helicopter flying over the area and there was a bright light coming from it,” Dr Clarke recalled.

The witness said she woke her husband, who also looked through the window, before going back to bed.

Dr Clarke said she too followed suit and was about to lie down when she heard a sound and jumped up.

SOUNDS AROUND THE HOUSE

“The first sound was like something was on the roof, sound like something drop on the housetop,” she said.

By the time she sat up, Dr Clarke said she heard another sound and that the sounds were getting more frequent.

“At that time I started to panic. We heard like, on the door, like someone was trying to get in. Sound on the roof, and to the side, sawing sound like the lock was being opened, banging on the house, dropping on the house,” she said.

Dr Clarke said she and her husband then went for their daughter and they went downstairs to the living room.

According to her, the plan was to get the key to the basement but in their panicked state, they could not find it that night.

“I was scared, my daughter was crying. I was panicking and we were wondering what was happening,” she testified.

Dr Clarke said she decided to return to her bedroom and her husband and daughter followed her.

“The sounds on the house were getting intense and, when we reached the bedroom, the shot sounds were all over the house,” she continued.

Her husband, she said, told her and her daughter to go into the adjoining bathroom as it would be safer and he started climbing up the closet top.

“While in the bathroom, we were calling our neighbours, our relatives, our pastors and we were praying,” said Dr Clarke.

She said her daughter also called 119 twice and that she spoke to the police on the second call.

Dr Clarke will continue her testimony today.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com