Former gangster rebuilding his life as a mason

After escaping death by the gun twice, O'Neil Buckle, 46, who hails from Rockfort in east Kingston, said he decided to walk away from a life of gang violence.

The former gangster, who is now a mason, is appealing to Jamaican youth to resist the urge to turn to a life of crime and violence.

"A 'mosquito life' dem deh, enuh, bredrin. Those who survive it just never get squashed and yuh cyah tell if yuh ago get squashed or not," said Buckle. "I was shot on two separate occasions, one from a stray bullet and the other time from bad man things. It nuh work, mi can tell a man that from experience. Mi do nuff jailhouse and prison things because a badness."

In the two shootings, the father of three was shot in the hand, back and in the left abdomen. But after his last encounter with what he described as a "life changing" experience, Buckle said he knew it was time to make a change in his life.

"A God mek mi deh here, enuh, cause a nuff things mi go through. Yuh see after mi get shot in mi hand (in 1998), mi realise say di badman lifestyle nah go mek mi live fi long. So mi decide fi mek a conscious change," he said.

The former Kingston Technical High School student said that after he began to seek ways to improve his life, he stumbled upon an opportunity to work in the construction industry.

"When mi did a go school, a mechanical engineering mi did a do, but mi left school prematurely. But after mi leave school certain things start gwan, and then mi decide say mi affi mek a change. That is when mi start do construction and from there mi fell in love with it," he said. Buckle would ply his trade wherever he could but since 2015, he is enjoying life as the main construction worker at Rocksprings Farm, a small urban farm that does livestock rearing off Windward Road, Kingston.

"Working here come in like a part of me. I am happy with the progress that I see. Right here, I am the one responsible for most of the construction (including the slaughter houses, pig pens, and the biodigester) that you see," he said.

Having managed to walk away from a life of crime and violence, Buckle said that he is hoping that his story can help to inspire change in others.

"Mi born and grown ina di community so mi know weh mi a talk bout. Rockfort is like a ticking time bomb, so yuh know say more time things ago happen and it no tek much fi things happen here. But me manage to walk away from it, and mi a hope say my story can inspire another yute fi do the same," he said.