Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Talk show host Kingsley 'Raggashanti' Stewart on air at News Talk 93 FM radio on Friday, following his abduction the previous evening from the University of the West Indies, Mona. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

What was to be a normal Thursday even-ing for lecturer and popular talk show host Dr. Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart, turned out out be a nightmare.

After completing a class Thursday, the popular media figure was pounced upon and abducted by a young man who appeared to be a student.

As he related his ordeal to The Sunday Gleaner, the trauma was still apparent in the face of this tall muscular man. His eyes were red, the remnant of a tearful breakdown on his talk show earlier that morning. But as we spoke, he displayed his usual machismo.

Stewart explained:"I was going to my vehicle, talking to a student about his paper and so forth, and as I approached the vehicle I disarmed it with my remote. I'm accustomed to students approaching me all the time on campus, so I saw this person approaching me looking like a student and coming up and he called so I was acknowledging his presence and thing. He sank a gun in my side and said: 'If you seh nanything, yuh dead!' "

The young man then forced Dr. Stewart into his own vehicle. As he did so, another youngster approached them.

Stewart said:"He was on a phone talking as if he was talking to his girlfriend and he said: 'Gimme the key. Gimme the key quietly.' And then the one with the gun in my side said to give him the key, so I realised that they were partners.

Dr. Stewart, without hesitating followed the instructions of the men and handed over his keys.

Decided to kill him

They then left the campus in his car and went to a lonely road between the Mona High School and the Mona hockey turf, a few metres outside the campus, where they bound Dr. Stewart, blindfolded him and put him in the trunk of another car which they drove.

Stewart related: "They were driving around with me for half an hour or so and I heard them talking because I was in the trunk of this car. They were on the phone and they started talking to me and saying, 'You just cool and we will let you go' and thing, 'But don't do nothing or else we kill you.' And them tell you how much people them kill and so.

But I'm in the trunk and whoever had my car called. He must have found the license for my firearm and he called them and told them. So, they decided that they had to kill me because I didn't tell them I had a firearm.

"At this point, I was utilising every trick in the book I knew from my training in counselling and psychotherapy to bond with them ... to frame myself in such a way that it would decrease the probability that they would actually kill me."

The men then stopped the car and, carefully, but skilfully, forced him to throw his gun outside by barely cracking open the trunk while they aimed at him in case he made a move at them. The gunmen celebrated as Dr. Stewart's once-prized possession became their own.

"Then they locked me back in the trunk and drove some more.

"Then they stopped and said that they were waiting to hear from whoever was supposed to sell my car because the whole thing is that they didn't want to put me on the road until they concluded selling my car to whoever they were selling it to."

The trunk was getting stuffy now and Dr. Stewart could hear himself gasping for air. They released him from the trunk and put him on the back seat, face down, still bound and blindfolded.

Realised who he was

He continued a conversation he was having with the two young men while he was in the trunk of the car about crime and why they did what they were doing. It was during this conversation that they realised who he was.

Stewart recounted, " 'Kingsley Stewart, I know that name. You a police?' "

"Me seh: 'No, me not a police. I'm a lecturer at the University of the West Indies and I also do some work in the media.'

"So they said: 'Weh dem call you?' So me seh 'Ragashanti' and them seh: 'Ragashanti, b...c..t yow! You are the one ever on radio always a big-up and a defend the ghetto youth and ting?' And they said: 'Yow we caan kill this yute here man. Them man here a one of we.'

Dr. Stewart related this with with a half smile, adding that he was still wary of the men. He thought they would still kill him but it was only a matter of time.

Released on open lot

Stewart continued: "Then they brought me out. At some point they had concluded the business so they said 'Okay, we have to let you go some place now.'

"And they had me lay down on the back seat and they drove like for 10-15 minutes or more then they said 'Come out of the car.'

"Then they said 'Lay down' and then I felt a gun at the back of my head so I thought they were going to kill me there. So I laid down and realised I was in some wet grass, and then the one with the gun on me he said something like: 'B...cl..t, you lucky you get way!' and him turn round and told whoever was driving the car to drive. While the car was driving off, I heard another vehicle which sounded like a bike and when that motorcycle came up, they drove off. I heard their voices trailing away. That's how I knew they were leaving," he said.

He was left in the middle of nowhere, or so he thought, but he was alive. He took off the blindfold and proceeded to make his journey to safety. He walked from the bushes into the busy roadway. That is when he realised where he was. He was in an open lot just outside the university campus.

Stewart:"So then, I walked up to the university and contacted security. I was a mess, barefoot, and the thing was still on my head. So I contacted security and they called the police."