The St Vincent government has reached a settlement with the family of Cjea Weekes, the 18-year-old motorcyclist who died following a high-speed police pursuit in February 2022. The settlement concludes a protracted legal battle over the circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death in Twenty Hill.
Lawyer Jomo Thomas, whose firm represents the Weekes family, commended Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday and Attorney General Louise Mitchell for their decision to compensate the family. Thomas noted that the settlement spared the family the “agony of going to court and retelling and reliving that story”.
Thomas highlighted that the previous administration under Ralph Gonsalves had refused to settle, despite the fact that Weekes’ mother, Natasha Weekes, was employed as a domestic worker at the Prime Minister’s official residence at the time of her son’s death. Sadly, Natasha Weekes passed away on March 5, 2025, a year before this resolution was reached.
The incident occurred on February 2, 2022, when police pursued Weekes and a friend through Twenty Hill after they allegedly failed to stop for officers.
Before his death at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital four days later, Weekes told his mother that the police vehicle had run him over and rested on top of him.Medical reports confirmed that Weekes suffered a broken spine, a broken left leg, and was paralyzed from the chest down prior to his passing.
The settlement follows a controversial coroner’s inquest held last October, which concluded that Weekes’ death was a result of “misadventure”. Jomo Thomas had strongly criticized this verdict, arguing that the police were “directly responsible” and that the officer driving the vehicle, Cheslon Scott, acted with negligence and recklessness.
While Thomas acknowledged that no amount of money could replace a life, he stated that the settlement provides the family with a “sense of contentment” that they successfully pursued justice for their son. The specific amount of the compensation was not disclosed, though Thomas described it as “not an enormous amount”.