Cdn set to appear in court in death of 4-year-old boy in St. Lucia
Posted Mar 3, 2015 12:46:20 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VIEUX FORT, St. Lucia – Supporters of a Canadian man charged in the drowning of a four-year-old boy in St. Lucia say he was trying to help the child after seeing him struggle in the water.
Sahab Jamshidi is charged with causing death by gross negligence or recklessness in the drowning of Terrel Joshua Elibox and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, the Royal St. Lucia Police Force said.
The charge, which is a subsection of manslaughter, carries a possible sentence of life in prison, police said.
Police said last week investigators were told Terrel was given a ride by a kite surfer on Feb. 22, fell into the sea and submerged.
A search and rescue mission was immediately conducted, but police said the boy’s body was not recovered until two days later.
In a report on a local TV station, family members of the boy said they had no idea he was missing until a man approached Terrel’s grandmother, saying he’d taken the boy on his surfboard and the child had fallen off.
In a Facebook page set up in Jamshidi’s defence, a friend who said he spoke to the Hamilton-area man before the charge was laid offered a different account.
“He was kite surfing and saw a child bobbing in the water barely swimming,” Stephen Verbeek wrote.
“He had tried to save him but ultimately the waves stripped the boy and his board away from him.”
Others who identified themselves as friends and relatives also rallied in his defence on Facebook, some recalling an incident last fall when Jamshidi, 33, helped an injured young man he encountered while cycling on a Hamilton trail.
They praised his caring, altruistic nature and his community involvement as a soccer referee.
