Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

Bounty Killer addresses the crowd at his 'Saddle to the East' show held at Morant Bay, St. Thomas, on Saturday. - Roger Chuck

Bounty Killer says he was not 'held in the bushes' in St. Thomas as the police had previously stated to the media.

In a report carried in The Star yesterday, Monday, August 28, the police, who arrested Bounty Killer and charged him with using indecent language and abusive language, said they held him in the bushes following an abbreviated chase.

However, 'The Warlord' gives a different account. He says after the police threatened to end his show, 'Saddle to the East' on Saturday because of profanities being used by some of the artistes, things escalated and he too started cursing. He says he left the venue and was chased by the police into a dead-end street.

"I found myself in a dead-end street, you know because I was smoking and that sort of thing. Before that they were trying to arrest my crew saying that they were aiding and abetting a criminal. The matter is something for the petty session court, it is not a criminal matter, so I don't know when I became a criminal. They say I was hiding in bushes, but I wasn't, I walk come down to them. Everywhere in the valley full of bushes and I walk up on a street. After them come, I go down to them and them arrest and charge me and me get bail. When me ah go home, me hear say people a protest. When I was coming back, I felt like Paul Bogle, like a hero or something," Bounty told The Star yesterday.

The Killer explained the incidents leading up to the end of the show.

"It was like the end of the concert, about 5 0'clock and people started using profane languages and up until that point we were trying to keep it clean. The police got upset because of that and den Sizzla and Mavado tek the stage and start say some things and den the police did want lock off the show."

"... Dem come pon stage and a try tek Sizzla off-stage and make the man hopping and skipping all over the place and dem time deh me or Kartel or Ele nuh perform yet. These men were acting anti-social, even though we were using profane language, we were just asking them to let the concert finish because a poor people thing this and it is there to benefit the community. Then when Sizzla start cuss because of the police, the people start hurl bottles and the police start to burst shots," Bounty explained.

An officer from the Morant Bay Police spoke to THE STAR regarding Sizzla and had a different story: "I was backstage speaking to Sizzla socially, about professional matters ... I know he didn't curse, so he's not wanted."

Bounty continued: "So when me see what happening, me go pon stage and say to the people dem 'stop fling bottle and calm unnuh self.'"

Bounty explained why he got upset with the police: "Me put my all into that show, my income and the effort to make it happen and when I see the same police in the area trying to be insensitive I start to use profane language. That is not my usual actions, that was just a reaction. So I apologise that I did something so wrong to protect that thing that I thought was so right."

"All the artistes who came, did that free of cost. They knew that it was to generate money for the community. That's why when me go on-stage, me say if dem a go charge nobody, mek me get charged to, because nobody who came nuh tek 50 cent fi do the show. Now when you look at how the police act, it will kill the mind frame of the people who are willing to help. The show was a great one and all the artistes performed well. We had a crowd of 8, 000 and everything went well up until the police."

He says he, Sizzla and those affiliated with the Alliance, have become targets of the police, while others don't suffer the same fate.

"The police down there tried to do the same thing to Sizzla some time ago and never want to give him bail and that's when he sang 'they want to free me/ the whole f—ing world want to see me,' because they never want to give him no bail. They have something out for artistes in St. Thomas...I are the target from a long time ago, Anything that you do in this county to uplift people they are going to be against you. If you are the voice of the voiceless, they are going to target you. But I are a bullet and you can't target a bullet."

Bounty Killer was granted $50, 000 station bail and is to appear in the Yallahs Resident Magistrate's Court in St. Thomas on Wednesday.