Bishop Herro Blair testified in the Tivoli Enquiry that he visited Tivoli Gardens on two occasions to get then don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to surrender.
He said he saw about 50 men with guns on May 19, 2010 and that he told Coke to have the men disarmed or tell them to leave the community.
He told the enquiry that if he saw more guns in his life it would’ve been when he was a reserve in the army.
He said the men were guarding the community and that he saw blockades along the roadway.
Blair also testified that when be went back to Tivoli May 21, 2010 on the request of then Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington, he only saw four or five men with guns in Coke’s office and that he thought to himself that Coke had acceded to his request.
He said he met with Coke for about an hour and that the last 15 or 20 minutes were spent pleading with the don to turn himself in, which would spare the bloodshed that would come should members of the security forces attempted to apprehend him.
He said he told Coke that the commissioner said he should turn himself in to the local authority or the United States and go for a reduced sentence.
However, he said Coke refused, noting that he would wait on the outcome of his legal action before the court before making a decision.
Blair said Coke also expressed fears that, should he surrender to local authorities, he could meet a similar fate as his father Lester Lloyd Coke who died in a mysterious fire while in police custody awaiting extradition to the United States.
Blair said that he first spoke with Coke about surrendering on May 19 with the blessings of then Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
He said that first meeting with Coke lasted about two hours. Blair testified that Coke refused to surrender, saying that he would do so if he lost his legal battle in the Supreme Court.
Blair said he knew that the security forces were going to launch its operation to apprehend Coke, as a result of talks within police circles.
On the day of the operation, May 24 2010, Blair said that a resident from Tivoli called to say that 110 bodies had been lying in Tivoli square.
He said another resident had called him earlier to say that bombs were being dropped in the community. He said too that he went atop his office building at Waltham Park Road where he could hear loud explosions coming from the West Kingston area.
He testified also that he and a touring party went into the community on Golding’s request, on 25 May 2010, where he saw a man who appeared to be dying and one man who seemed to be dead.
What a liaaard bloodclaat… Mi grow up a Rosalia Avenue weh closer to Spanish town road an me caan hear bombs ah west Kingston. Blair church deh further up the Waltham and him coulda stay pon him roof and hear bomb ah drop?! Stop the claat inna mi ayes!!