Sascha Wil­son

Sev­er­al po­lice of­fi­cers wept unashamed­ly yes­ter­day as they bade farewell to their col­league Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice­man (SRP) Re­naul Dob­son. Dob­son, 26, was killed when a white Lexus car, dri­ven by a woman mo­torist, ploughed in­to him on Sun­day as he di­rect­ed traf­fic on the Solomon Ho­choy High­way. Scores of mourn­ers who at­tend­ed the fu­ner­al ser­vice at Ed­in­burgh Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, yes­ter­day de­scribed the young of­fi­cer as lov­ing and a fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed per­son. Dob­son, who was buried in his po­lice uni­form at the Ch­agua­nas ceme­tery, was giv­en a full mil­i­tary send-off.

Ten­der­ly stroking his cheek, his girl­friend, Giselle Dass, whom he planned to mar­ry next year, cried in­ces­sant­ly and had to be phys­i­cal­ly sup­port­ed by rel­a­tives. Among the scores of po­lice­men at the fu­ner­al were Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mau­rice Pig­gott and ACP Fitroy Fed­er­icks who ex­pressed con­do­lences on be­half of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs. Dob­son's dis­traught par­ents, Zo­ri­na and Michael, were hand­ed a let­ter by Pig­gott from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter John Sandy who ex­pressed his con­do­lences. Fred­er­icks paid trib­ute to Dob­son as he re­called the first time he worked with him in a road traf­fic ex­er­cise. Say­ing he ad­mired Dob­son's pro­fes­sion­al­ism, Fred­er­icks called on po­lice of­fi­cers to em­u­late his ded­i­cat­ed spir­it which was es­pe­cial­ly need­ed in crime­fight­ing.

Fred­er­icks added that the job of a po­lice of­fi­cer was at times dan­ger­ous." Ded­i­cat­ing a po­em to Dob­son, Sgt Patrice Hat­ters said her dream was that all SRPs and, by ex­ten­sion mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers, would "rise and be recog­nised." De­liv­er­ing the eu­lo­gy, Di­an­na Daniel said Dob­son was a mem­ber of the Mis­sion of Christ Church. "He (Dob­son) even told his girl­friend that di­rect­ing traf­fic was so bor­ing but he al­ways made it in­ter­est­ing by in­vent­ing a dance," Daniel said, bring­ing brief smiles to many solemn faces. Sel­wyn Joseph, who al­so worked with Dob­son, said he was fond­ly known a as "a short stuff who al­ways would share his food and a bag of snacks with his col­leagues." "If love could have saved him he would have been alive to­day," Joseph added.