Former Speaker of the House of Assembly Jomo Thomas maintains his fight that he did not not engage in a fight with Dr Jerrol Thompson, instead he claims he was attacked by him.
“It wasn’t a fight, I was attacked,” Thomas said on Monday December 19 during an interview on Boom 106.9 OMG morning show.
Thompson and Thomas, men who both contested elections on Unity Labour Party (ULP) tickets, were involved in a physical altercation on Saturday at Heritage Square Kingstown.
Shortly after murmurs of the incident made it’s rounds, Thomas addressed the incident via his Facebook page stating that he had been attacked by Thompson but refused to strike back.
According to Thomas, a heated debate ensued after he approached Thompson who was in the company of Edmond Jackson, the Director General of Finance and Planning and sports administrator Sean Stanley and began a debate regarding covid-19 vaccination.
Thomas, who is also a Lawyer, told OMG listeners that he suggested that they [The government] should implement a Swedish model where vaccinations are voluntary not mandatory and the two began to debate numbers.
OMG listeners heard that the argument got heated and Thomas said, “Let somebody else talk… stop acting like a jackass,”.
Thomas, also a columnist, said he was surprised by the attack that included a number of punches in his direction from Thompson.
“He fired a punch at me, I was surprised, then he fired another one and another one,” he claimed.
“It wasn’t a fight I was attacked,” the former speaker emphasized.
Thompson has claimed that Thomas pushed a chair that hit him, at that is what sparked the brawl.
However, Thomas refuted that version of the incident during the interview.
He said, “It would totally and completely be out of character for me to assault someone,”
Adding that he would be surprised if the witnesses agreed with Thompson’s account of the altercation.
Thomas also stated that he wasn’t agitated at all by the incident and later stated that he has no intentions of pressing charges.
Thomas, a former ULP campaigner, said he mentioned the Prime Minister in his argument and post because it is his opinion that the country’s leader should advise his supporters so that they may not resort to violence.
However, in an interview with ANN yesterday, Thompson had a different recollection of the event that transpired.
In Thompson’s version of the incident he was hanging out at heritage square with some friends [the aforementioned witnesses] when Thomas approached them exclaiming “Doctors’s can’t talk!”
Thompson went on to disclose that the two had a debate about vaccination policies implemented by the government when Thomas became enraged and pushed a chair and hit him.
“Now by that time, I had got up and he was upset because he lost his…. Academic discussion, and he pushed the chair that I was sitting on right up against me as if you want to lift it up,”
Thompson said that there were about six witnesses present during the altercation and he reacted to Thomas’ actions by punching him in the face repeatedly.
“I punched him, and then I pushed him back. He fell onto a bench and I punched him again. And then I landed two blows, two additional blows. I hit him five times,” he said.
“Now this is a time of peace and Christmas, I shouldn’t indulge in these things but he assaulted me.”
Thomas said, having been a politician he has taken worse heckling and insults.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Medicinal Cannabis Authority said that Thomas thought he could “abuse” him and get away with it.
“He went and wrote on his Facebook page that he fended off the blow, but he fended it off with his face and his head,” Thompson told ANN.
He added that Jackson, Stanley and a number of other people can corroborate his story.
Thompson also stated that making a report to the police is not necessary.
“Let me tell you something, I got my satisfaction of really getting him back and pounding him. He probably feel bad I did that”
In both interviews, both professionals acknowledged that they have had no prior incidents before the altercation and have actually known each other for a long time.
Thompson, added that he punched Thomas on principle although men their age (above 60) should not be getting in those types of altercations.
The brawl remains a trending topic on social media with persons taking sides in debating who was right in the situation.