Well known street person Jacqueline Thomas is dead. You probably don't recognize the name but the woman city residents know as Jackie was seriously injured in a hit and run incident three months ago. This morning, the complications resulting from those injuries led to her death. Tonight her family wants her killer in jail.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Her name is Jacqueline Thomas but on the streets she was simply "Jackie"- a disheveled and barefoot mammoth of a woman that was always trodding through the city. She was a true child of the street but she wasn't homeless.
Stanley Thomas, Brother
"Jacqueline was kind of hard because we always tried to keep her inside but she was somebody who didn't want to stay in. She was active. Although she was retarded, she was very active."
Joan Thomas, Sister
"Jackie is a nice person. She is my little sister and she is very nice to everybody. I will miss her. I will miss Jackie. I will miss her."
Jackie's younger brother Stanley Thomas and her older sister Joan were overcome by emotion this afternoon. Joan actually took care of Jackie and she says the street legend we knew had a home on Iguana Street. The problem was getting her to stay there.
Bernard "Dugu" Thomas, Brother
"We could not control Jackie from we were growing up. My mother passed away and she was the only person who could control Jackie. From my mom passed away, Jackie has been on the loose. We tried to do for her; we feed her, we bathe her, we did everything to take care of her but we didn't a yard and fence to lock her in. So unfortunately she was on the loose."
Joan Thomas,
"I don't know because none of us are on the street but maybe it is because she has that problem and she likes to runaway through the back door. She liked to run away. It is not because she didn't have a home, she had a home. But people out there said Jackie didn't have a home but we, we have a home, and this is my house and this is Jackie's room right here. She just loved the streets."
And it is these streets which Jackie loved so much that eventually cost her, her life. Jackie was knocked down by a bus three months ago near the roundabout on Central American Boulevard.
Joan Thomas,
"When I reached the hospital, the doctor rejected to tend to her because she smelt like, she urined herself and when I reached there, we saw Jackie in a wheel chair in a corner in the Belize City Hospital, by the emergency. They shoved her to the corner like she is nothing. I started to make a lot of noise and asked why didn't they take care of this child, this child was hurt, and they still sent her home."
The KHMH refused Jackie and she ended up back at Iguana Street. She never recovered and never left Iguana Street. Still, no one has still been arrested and her family is demanding justice.
Stanley Thomas,
"What kind of law Belize has now? We don't have any law in this country, none. They knocked her down and the guy is still out there driving and my sister is dead now. From my sister got knocked down, she was paralyzed for the rest of her life, until she died this morning. She was paralyzed until she died."
Joan Thomas,
"He is out here, he is right out here driving the bus and Jacqueline is in the Belize City morgue. She is in the morgue and he is still out here driving."
And now her family hopes that how she is treated in death does not reflect the way she was treated when she was alive.
A post mortem is scheduled for Monday. Jackie would have turned 39 on November 25th.
