AT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL IN KINGSTON, JAMAICA : Family in shock after dad of four, Denton “Brown Man” Stewart, found hanging

BY KIMONE THOMPSON Associate editor — features thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, June 22, 2017

The late Denton 'Brown Man' Stewart 

While the world was celebrating Father's Day on Sunday, Denton “Brown Man” Stewart, himself a father of four, apparently took his own life.

Stewart, a middle-aged carpenter, was employed to Bellevue Hospital, a State-run mental health facility in Kingston. Co-workers found his body dangling from a rope inside an abandoned ward undergoing renovations when they showed up for work on Monday.

The hospital staff members, many of whom gathered in groups under trees just outside the building where their colleague's body was found, were visibly shocked and hurt, many even angry and casting blame on hospital administration for what they described as a tense and stressful working relationship.

“Dis a nuh Brown Man. Dis a nuh 'Brown Man',” one of them kept repeating, shaking his head.

Another said: “A not even one year yet wi bury one a wi other co-worker, and now Brown Man gone too.”

“It hurt the staff, but it hurt me times two,” one nurse was overheard telling her colleagues. “You never come in contact with him and not come away touched.”

Stewart's aunt Judith Brown told the Jamaica Observer that the entire family is reeling from shock. “Everybody shocked to hear this. None of us know Denton like this,” she said, adding that they didn't see any signs that would suggest he was thinking of taking his own life.

Bellevue Hospital in Kingston

“Denton builds furniture and he had a shop one time. The shop burned down right down to the ground [and] he never did this. He was in a bike accident one time and his fingers were crushed. He spent weeks in KPH (Kingston Public Hospital) recuperating [and] he never did this. So why now?” Brown said.

She said she last saw her nephew two weeks ago when he paid her a visit to assess some carpentry work at her house. She said, too, that he had recently completed a cabinet-making contract at a house nearby. She maintained that if Stewart was having any particular problem, he would have at least shared it with his grandmother, with whom she said he was very close.

“For Denton not to come home, for Denton not to call…” said Brown, her voice trailing off. “Dis hot. It hot bad. Wi not even tell him mother yet. Nuhbody nuh know how fi tell har.” more