Worker hits boss on head with hammer

(CNS): An altercation between a Foster’s employee and his supervisor has landed the man in court facing charges of GBH after he hit his boss on the head with a hammer. Dain Damean McPherson has pleaded not guilty to one count of wounding with intent in connection with the incident that took place at the supermarket’s Countryside branch in Savannah last September, claiming he was acting in self-defence. The trial opened Friday, when prosecutor Toyin Salako presented the crown’s case against McPherson who is accused of being the aggressor.

She also showed the jury CCTV which captured the altercation from various angles.

When the victim gave evidence, he told the court that at first he had been friends with McPherson but at some point that changed, though he did not really know why. After that, he said, McPherson handed in his notice several months before he planned to leave the supermarket, but once he made the decision to leave, his work ethic fell and he no longer seemed to care about the job.

The supervisor said that when the shift began on the evening of the assault, he had made a passing comment to McPherson while in the walk-way between the store and the stockroom, telling him that he hoped he had come to do some work. In response, he said, McPherson said he was sick of the supervisor “perplexing him” and had pushed him in his face. Angry words were then exchanged between the two men and McPherson picked up a hammer and took a swing at the supervisor, who was able to grab the tool and walk away, which was also captured on CCTV.

The supervisor told the jury he was on his way to report the incident to the manager when McPherson came back at him from behind, grabbed the hammer and then began raining down blows. By this time the store manager and other co-workers were in the area and they were able to pull the men apart and retrieve the hammer, but not before the victim had sustained a blow to his arm and two blows to the head. The employees also prevented McPherson from trying to get a knife, which was on a nearby deli-tray.

Following the assault McPherson left the scene and shortly afterwards the supervisor was taken to hospital, where he received stitches for the head wound.

During cross-examination defence attorney for McPherson, Amelia Fosuhene, accused the supervisor of being a bully and said he had spent  months provoking his subordinate, pushing and elbowing him and regularly taunting him, which the supervisor denied.

She accused the supervisor of making threats to McPherson on the night of the altercation, driving him to arm himself with a hammer because he was in fear of what the supervisor might do to him. She said that the supervisor had threatened to kill McPherson, telling him he had a gun in his car and that he was involved in the drug business.

The supervisor denied all of the allegations and said that while he was in the hospital he had given his car keys to the police so they could search the vehicle because he had never owned a gun and did not have one in his car and had made no threats at all to McPherson.

The case continues.