Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Three months af­ter a fa­tal jet ski ac­ci­dent claimed the life of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie at Pi­geon Point beach in To­ba­go, the op­er­a­tor of the wa­ter­craft was yes­ter­day charged by po­lice.

Ash­worth Burn­nett, 32, was re­ar­rest­ed and processed by of­fi­cers last evening, af­ter Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) Roger Gas­pard had ear­li­er giv­en them in­struc­tions to charge the jet ski op­er­a­tor with manslaugh­ter.

An­gel­i­ca was struck by the jet ski in the bathing-on­ly zone at Pi­geon Point while on va­ca­tion with her Bar­rack­pore fam­i­ly on April 8. Her par­ents and one oth­er rel­a­tive were al­so hit by the wa­ter­craft. The for­mer San Fer­nan­do TML stu­dent was pro­nounced dead at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rod­hill Kirk con­firmed Burn­nett was re­ar­rest­ed yes­ter­day at his home in Canaan. The sus­pect, who had ini­tial­ly fled the scene, was ar­rest­ed on April 9 but lat­er re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

An­gel­i­ca’s fa­ther, Arnold Jo­gie, told Guardian Me­dia the de­vel­op­ment had brought some re­lief to the fam­i­ly, who have been griev­ing and ap­peal­ing for jus­tice. While pleased that a charge was fi­nal­ly be laid, Jo­gie said this can­not bring back his daugh­ter.

“I feel kin­da light now that some form of jus­tice is served,” he said yes­ter­day.

“I am a lit­tle hap­py about that — but it can­not bring back a life. It still sad too. I still loss,” he said.

Asked how the fam­i­ly has been cop­ing since the tragedy, Jo­gie said, “The last three months is still just like yes­ter­day. It still feels just like yes­ter­day. It is a re­al­ly, re­al­ly rough road we are go­ing through and no­body could ex­plain this.”

The air-con­di­tion­ing tech­ni­cian said the death of his daugh­ter has erased all zeal and hap­pi­ness from his life.

He ex­pressed hope that the mat­ter would be dealt with ex­pe­di­tious­ly by the court.

Mean­while, Kirk com­mend­ed his of­fi­cers and de­fend­ed their cau­tious ap­proach to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. He re­it­er­at­ed that the case was ex­treme­ly com­plex and was the first of its kind un­der his lead­er­ship.

The Jo­gies have ini­ti­at­ed civ­il ac­tion against the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park and the jet ski op­er­a­tor fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent.

In a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter, at­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing the fam­i­ly say the death was pre­ventable and al­leged neg­li­gence and breach of du­ty by all par­ties.