Card game ends in death

A PRINCES Town father of 11 died shortly after arriving at the San Fernando General Hospital on Friday night, after he fell and struck his head on some concrete steps inside a club, during a scuffle with a man whom the victim had been playing cards with. 

And while police continue investigations into the death of Victor Kennedy, 45, of St Croix, Princes Town, his grieving relatives described the incident as a freak accident, since Kennedy and the man whom he was fighting with, were close friends and limed together often. An autopsy will be conducted tomorrow at the Forensic Sciences Centre, following which police will decide on what course they would take in the investigations.

According to police reports, around 10.30 pm on Friday, Kennedy a building contractor, was liming and playing cards with a group of men in the gambling-room of the Paradise Recreational Club located at St Croix Branch Road, Princes Town. Kennedy later got into a heated argument with a 28-year-old man of St Croix Road, Princes Town. During the quarrel the man reportedly pushed Kennedy, who lost his balance and fell backwards, hitting the back of his head on some concrete steps. When the limers realised that Kennedy was not breathing and his eyes were closed, an Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulance was summoned and the Princes Town police were called in. The ambulance took the unconscious man to the San Fernando General Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead-on-arrival.

Persons at the Recreation Club could not tell Sunday Newsday what the argument between the two men was about. They described the two men as being close friends. When Sunday Newsday visited the Kennedy home yesterday, relatives walked about with dazed looks on their faces as they struggled to come to terms with their unexpected loss.  Kennedy who worked as a building contractor with Trade Winds Hotel in San Fernando, was the sole bread-winner for his large family. Kennedy’s sombre wife Roslyn Thomas, said she last saw her husband alive on Friday morning as he prepared to leave for work. She told Sunday Newsday that Kennedy must have gone to lime a bit before returning home from work. Their 11 children range between the ages of 24 years and 18 months. Some of the elder children, described their father as a quiet, kind and generous man who was “willing to help anyone in anyway he could”.