Gunmen

Diary, Tuesday 14th July 1998:

I came across Tom Kuhlman yesterday. We were both sitting on the Small Embassy Projects Committee. After the meeting he gave me a lift up to the University. In the car he told me he had been confronted by Gunmen. He had wanted some part of his car welded and went looking for a welder. Driving down Maxfield Avenue he found a placard saying Pablo’s Welding Works. He stopped, walked into a courtyard butfound nobody. He called out a couple of times and opened the door to a shed at the back of the yard. He saw two men lying on the floor, presumably asleep and did not feel like waking them up as the sight of them in that position did not exactly inspire confidence that the job would be well done. He decided to drive on and find another; there are many welders in Kingston. As he turned around he saw the passage leading to the main road had been blocked off by four small men. Tom is very tall. One of them held up a gun and pointed it at him, while another asked him to go into the little shed at the back of the yard. That was where the two men were lying on the ground. Tom instinctively knew that he did not want to go back into that shed, and walked towards the men to pass them and reach the road. He shouted for help loudly and kept on walking. He could feel himself pee in his trousers. The gunmen fought and shouted amongst themselves. No one shot. No one on the street reacted to his cries for help, even though he could see people pass along. One of the men picked his handkerchief from his pocket. His wallet, which was in his back pocket and his driving licence, which was in his top pocket were not taken. In the end the gunmen did not want to do anything too public or too drastic, he drove away. I do not know how I would have reacted.