Tyrone Thomas, accused of deliberately trying to drive his vehicle into a public meeting of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), will not face prosecution.
Thomas was charged with assault following complaints to police from four people at the meeting, including former Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and Nazim Burke. The incident occurred last November in the village of Snug Corner in North-East St George.
“Members of the opposition National Democratic Congress are not pursuing a court case against a man, whom they virtually accused of an assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Tillman Thomas,’’ Caribupdate Weekly, a Grenada newspaper has reported.
In public comments following the incident, former PM Thomas said he “really felt intimidated; the vehicle reversed and kept coming.’’ Burke, a former MP for St George North-East, claimed “lives could have been lost that night, including the driver’s.”
After a police investigation, the 44-year-old driver was charged with four counts of assault and a court date set. But when the matter came up for hearing, “the four NDC complainants informed the court that they would not be attending the hearing and would not be pursuing the case against Tyrone Thomas,” Caribupdate Weekly reported. Sources close to the driver say that the complainants had requested that he should make a public apology over the Snug Corner incident. However, Thomas flatly refused the request.
This is the first issue of Caribupdate in several months, with the paper reporting that it “took some time off to reorganize.” “Like all start-up businesses, we’ve had our challenges,’’ Caribupdate said in this week’s editorial. “But, happily, we are back.’’ The 24-page paper, which sells at EC$1 each, was launched in December 2012.