Jermaine Hurst: The barber who stopped woman from killing herself

He tells JIS News that about mid-day on April 19 he visited a section of the Causeway to enjoy his usual pastime of fishing, when he noticed a woman in her mid-40s walk past him, towards the sea, without saying a word.

He became concerned, as the car that she drove to the spot was left running with the air-conditioning on and the windows down.

“Yuh alright?” Mr. Hurst tells JIS News that he called out to her, noting that while she nodded indicating that she was fine, “her face was saying something else”.

He again tried to engage her by asking if she had visited the area before, and if she would like to join him in catching fish, but she only responded “huh” and shrugged her shoulders.

“I wanted to see a smile on her face. It is a regular habit for me to put smiles on people’s faces, so I said to her ‘it will soon be your time to get a try [catching fish], but she only said ‘huh’ again,” he tells JIS News.

Mr. Hurst says that at one point the lady asked if he could swim and told him that she saw what looked like worms in the water, which he assured her were only small fishes.

Not able to concentrate on the task of fishing, Mr. Hurst tells JIS News that he tried to engage the lady in conversation when she uttered the words he did not want to hear: “a jump mi a go jump off enuh. Mi mek up mi mind. A jump mi a go jump off”.

Frightened, he says he shouted: “What yuh just seh? Yuh serious? Look here, a mi and you alone out here, and me not going to be able to live with that.”

Her reply was “It is not like yuh know mi,” he recalls.

Not knowing what to do, Mr. Hurst asked for her telephone, which she told him was in the car, along with details as to why she wanted to end her life. She said she did not want her body to be in the water for very long, where it would be eaten by worms.

Recognising that he had to get help, Mr. Hurst discreetly called the 119 emergency number, and while waiting for the police to arrive, he distracted the stranger by asking about her family, and she held up her fingers to indicate that she had three children.

“I said to her, ‘Your children are going to see you in a real life. They are not going to see you in a coffin.’ I said a number of things just to keep her with me, trying to get what I could out of her,” Mr. Hurst says.

He tells JIS News that on seeing the police vehicle approaching, she said “yuh call police”, and he told her that he had to help her.

In addition to the police officers, there was a rescue boat with medical personnel, and members of the Fire Brigade also responded to the incident.

Mr. Hurst says that after the stranger left with the emergency responders, he felt a deep sense of relief. He tells JIS NEWS that he could not have lived with himself if he had ignored the lady’s plight.

“I felt dehydrated; my throat was dry because I had talked [to her] for about two hours. If she had jumped, a nuh mi push her off but mi could not live with that, and mi just wanted help fi come. It was tremendous work and it was nerve-racking ” he says.

Head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Gary McKenzie, whose team, along with officers from the South St. Andrew Division responded to the emergency, says the police are well equipped to handle these situations.

He commends the action of Mr. Hurst.

“This is the kind of care that we really should have when it comes to dealing with each other. This gentleman was not trained to deal with situations like that, but as human beings we are able to detect and to show the side of us that will help others to get out of distress, and this is very commendable,” ACP McKenzie says.

Principal Director in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Sharon Coburn Robinson, says support programmes are available through the Bureau of Gender Affairs (BGA) for men and women who are in distress.

She is encouraging persons to reach out when they need help, by calling 876-553-0372, 876-236-0387 (for females), and (for males) 876-553-0387, as well as the BGA’s 24-hour toll-free number, 1-888-NO-ABUSE.

She is also hailing the actions of Mr. Hurst.

“He was a bystander, but he had human kindness running in his veins. We commend him, and all the other men and women like him who are bystanders but they understand the importance of jumping in and doing their part. This is a life saved,” Mrs. Coburn Robinson says.

She tells JIS News that the BGA will be looking into some “tangible recognition” for Mr. Hurst, as well as including him in the entity’s first responder programme.