Wrong place, wrong time - Man shot and paralysed while buying food recalls fateful night

If Michael Robinson could journey back to May 2009, he admits that he would not have left his home one Wednesday night that caused him to lose his mobility.

As he and his friend purchased food from a nearby cookshop, he was shot by one of two men who were having a physical dispute.

"I keep telling myself that had I known my fate, I would not have left home that night. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I followed my friend to buy chicken and chips and a couple guys were there having a disagreement and a cuss. But we never business with that because a food we come buy. The argument turn physical and one of the guys that was arguing ran towards our direction and a next guy a run behind him with a firearm a fire after him and I accidentally got shot in my back," he said.

As the blood drained from his body, Robinson said his life flashed before him and he imagined dying and leaving behind his daughter who was just three months old at the time.

"I realise I couldn't get up and a there suh mi know say something really wrong," Robinson said.

Though the life of the father of two was spared, things were never the same. After realising that he was not going to walk again, Robinson said he became depressed and even harboured suicidal thoughts.

"The doctor tell mi say it was a 50/50 chance that I may not walk again and that traumatised mi, eno, because I was a healthy man walking. One a di time when mi deh a KPH, mi a tell miself say it better the doctor dem give me something that I don't get to go home back. All type a things a go through my mind and I was very depressed," Robinson said.

Robinson resides with his teenage daughters along Bay Farm Road in St Andrew. He told THE STAR that they were his motivators who dragged him out of depression.

"I do my little workout at home after I stop going to Mona Rehab and I got support from my family members and the kids' mother support mi a lot as well. My two daughters kept me grounded as well, and with them, I know I can't give up," he said.

Currently, Robinson makes a living as a merchandiser but said the majority of his earnings comes from TikTok, where he has a following of more than 30,000.

"TikTok help mi out a lot and this is how mi support dem to go to school in terms of fare and so on. These two girls are my world, mi nah go lie. We have a great relationship and mi feel like if a never dem, mi would go crazy and mi love dem like how Jesus love little children," he said.

A victim of gun violence, Robinson said he is happy that Jamaica has been on a sustainable path of crime reduction, but added that the island will not completely be rid of the murder plague until persons choose to walk the straight and narrow.

"The crime rate down fi true but I don't know what can truly stop crime, because some people choose that life. It is a choice and as long as people choose to do wrong, it not gonna stop. There are persons who get thrown into crime but the majority choose to do it, so until people change their mindset, we are doomed," Robinson said.