Fundraiser breaks records to help Kemar

(CNS): Over 650 people came out to the Caybrew special fund raiser on Saturday and helped to raise around $20,000 for the firm’s assistant brewer, who was shot in the eye by masked gunmen at a jerk chicken stand last month. 28-year-old Kemar Golding has finally made it to the United States after difficulties with a visa prevented the Jamaican national from being airlifted last week. Although he miraculously survived being shot through the head, Golding has lost his left eye and is still in need of specialist surgery to deal with the wound. Matthew Leslie from the Cayman Islands Brewery has been co-ordinating efforts to help Goldingand was delighted by Saturday’s turnout.

He explained that a record 66 local businesses had donated cash, food, drink and other resources to make Saturday’s fund raising effort such a success and all of this was pulled together in a week. The food and drink was free but people attending were asked to make donations and purchase tickets for the draw, which had drawn gifts and donations from many local businesses.

Leslie said he believed the event had attracted the biggest number of donors for any fundraiser ever held in Cayman and offered his thanks to everyone who had joined in, not just to help Kemar and his family but to send a message to the men who shot him. Leslie also noted the efforts of Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin, who had helped to get Golding to Miami.

The brewer became the victim of three masked gunmen late on Wednesday 29 June as he helped a friend take out garbage. When the two men had no money to give the would-be robbers who approached them behind the chicken stand, one of the gunmen senselessly shot Golding through the eye before the men reportedly escaped on foot behind the Prospect Playhouse.

The bullet passed through Golding’s head and miraculously missed his brain, and after pulling through his first emergency surgery at the Cayman Islands Hospital, Golding was able to speak to Cayman 27 last week and said he was thankful for his life.

The shocking crime has attracted a reward for the three men of $10,000, but so far police have made no arrests in what is an attempted murder investigation and Golding has said he could not remember much about the incident or the three masked men.

“Any individuals who were in the area at that time please help us,” DS Marlon Bodden head of CID said in the wake of the shooting as he pointed out how dangerous the men were.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 800-8477(TIPS) or the confidential police hotline 949-7777.