DR NOTICE SEH A KILL DEM DID WAA KILL HIM

Still recovering from an attack by armed hoodlums which left him nursing three gunshot wounds, Dr Raymoth Notice has rejected the theory that he was the victim of an intended robbery.

Instead, Notice believes he has been marked for death for the last decade, but especially since he resigned from active politics in the last 12 months.

“This was not a random attack. They came for me,” Notice told The Sunday Gleaner in his first full-length media interview since he was shot outside his house in Bog Walk, St Catherine, on December 21, 2015.

“It was about 8:20 in the morning and I was washing my vehicle to clean it up for my office. The taxi carrying my helper came up, and I just looked from the corner of my eyes and saw that it was her and continued washing the vehicle,” said Notice.

“A reflection from the vehicle caused me to turn around and into a crowbar coming at my head. I raised my left arm to thwart the blow, and that caused the armed men to pump three shots into my body,” Notice said from his bed, where the physical evidence of his injuries was obvious.

The first shot entered his body through the outside of his right thigh and exited through the inner thigh at the knee.

The second went into the left arm and exited through his chest, doing severe damage to the lungs, while the third was in his back, inches away from his spine and exited the right side of the chest.

Notice said he was conscious throughout the entire early-morning ordeal, and the three shots which hit him came in quick succession, especially after he wrestled with one of the armed men, despite falling to the ground after receiving the first two shots.

It was as he fell that his licensed firearm fell from his waistband. The attackers made off with the gun.

“At one point, I said, ‘Just finish me off’,” said Notice.

“They kept on asking for the ‘chist’ (money chest). They asked twice. And my daughter ran outside after hearing the shots and asked them why. They asked again for the ‘chist’ and demanded to be taken to my room. She took them to the room and they searched and found nothing before leaving,” added Notice.

SAVED BY HEROES

Having survived his ordeal, Notice looks back with awe at the persons he says were his heroes that morning: his daughter and the taxi driver, who was forced under his vehicle by the gunmen.

The taxi driver would take the battling-for-life Notice to the Spanish Town Hospital, while his daughter, on his instruction, called medical personnel to prepare them for his arrival and tell them of the seriousness of his wounds.

“My daughter was my wingman. The taxi driver broke every road rule to get me to hospital. And the medical people at Spanish Town Hospital were the first responders. They saved my life. The service there and at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) was immediate, efficient, professional and swift,” he stated.

Physically broken, for now, he walks with the aid of a crutch, and it will take significant physiotherapy to provide him with even 50 per cent use of his damaged left arm.

But his spirit is not broken and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor is convinced that he was marked for death from the day he placed on record, to the party, evidence-based concerns of corrupt political elements being foisted on the people despite their known sins.

“The issue is the subject of an investigation but I am happy to say – maybe it’s because of my near-death experience – the JLP has indicated that it would like more and better particulars about the concerns I raised years ago. Better late then never,” said Notice.

The medical doctor, who sports dreadlocks, said he was heartened by the outpouring of love nationally and internationally since the shooting.

“I didn’t know people cared so much,” said Notice, as he remembered what he said was the enduring image of his four children, two medical doctors, and two in medical school, at his bedside after his second surgery at the KPH to repair his damaged right thigh.

“It warms your heart, you know, and it says renewal,” said Notice.

Having developed a reputation in Spanish Town as ‘The People’s Doctor’, who refuses no one even if they cannot afford his fees, Notice said there have been offers for jungle justice to avenge his shooting.

So far, he has resisted – and he is insisting that he will continue to resist – overtures from representatives of two criminal gangs for a signal from him to mete out swift, brutal justice on his behalf.

Two men have since been arrested in connection with the attack on Notice. They are scheduled to appear in court this week.