[UPDATED] Family of policeman killed in crash: ‘He was our rock’

UP to 12 hours after PC Kent “Neppy” Neptune died in a car crash, his wife had not slept and his children barely got any rest.

“Lost,” “shocked,” and “hopeless” were just some of the words they used to describe how they felt on Friday as they mourned “a wonderful father” who cared deeply for his family.

Police reported around 10 pm on Thursday, Neptune was heading north along the Solomon Hochoy Highway, but lost control of his car. It went through the cable barriers and flipped several times before landing near Harmony Hall. His body was found 100 feet away.

He lived in Couva, was based at the Mon Repos Police Station and was the father of four.

His wife, Valerie Neptune, told Newsday one of her sons who lived with him called her frantically, saying, “Mummy, Mummy! Allyuh come quick by Gasparillo flyover. They say Daddy get in an accident and he dead.”

She said because of the strong emotion in her son’s voice, it took a while to understand what he was trying to say.

She was in the gallery of her Union Hall home at the time and began panicking. She immediately went to the site of the accident with her son Kyle and daughter Nicola, praying and hoping it was not her husband.

“Everybody just jump in the car and we went up the road,” she said.

Nicola added, “When I pulled up under the bridge in Gasparillo, we met some police and I explained to them and said, ‘My name is Nicola Neptune and I just heard my father got into an accident. I just want to go and make sure it’s not him.'”

Police did not hesitate to let them through, as the man was so well-known, they stopped asking questions after hearing the name Neptune.

But upon arrival, the family said, their hopes were crushed.

Kyle said it was a nerve-racking experience and he got an instant headache. In fact, he was still in pain up to the time of the interview.

“I never get a headache so bad in my life,” he said.

Nicola said, “When we saw him, his body didn’t have much damage, just a cut to the back of his head. He looked like he was just there sleeping. So there was some kind of hope that he would get up…We don’t know if he fall asleep or what.”

Neptune's son Kevon lay down in the road and hugged his father's body.

The rest of the family said the bond between the two was unbreakable and they are worried about him.

Last May, Kevon was praised and awarded by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith after saving an injured policeman in March.

While patrolling El Socorro on a motorbike, PC Shane Smith skidded on gravel and lost control of his bike. He hit an electricity pole and lost his left leg.

Kevon put the injured officer in his vehicle and took him to the Eric Willaims Medical Sciences Complex.

“I am afraid to even close my eyes,” Valerie said. “I am just trying to keep up. It real hard. This is a great, great, great loss.”

Despite being separated for some years, she said they still had a very strong friendship.

“Anywhere he go, he always have people laughing and cracking jokes…If I vex with him, he will come and make all kind of jokes and thing to make me laugh, that’s how he is. We remained good friends, he was always here and he was always a fun person.

“He was here up to two days ago. And yesterday morning I called him and said, ‘Kent, boy, I need two sheets of ply.’ He say, ‘Valie, you know you could ask me anything. You have that. You just go and find out what kind you want and I will get it.' Then last night to get this news…”

Kyle said he had also called Neptune on Thursday to check in find out how he was doing.

“He say he good. I ask him what he doing. He said he was cooking. I say, Okay, cook and I’ll talk to you later,” he said.

Kyle recently began studying law at the UWI Open Campus and said his father was so happy. He bought Kyle a laptop, which ended up being stolen, then bought a new one the very next day because he did not want his son to be without one. He had also been visiting lawyers' offices to try organising a mentor for Kyle.

Nicola’s last memory with him was of his visit on Wednesday. She said he was cleaning his gun in the gallery but didn’t know how to disassemble it.

“We had to go on YouTube and look it up. I tell him, ‘You is a big policeman and you don’t know how t clean your own gun?’ and we laughed. Same time we find a video, he had figured out how to do it.

“Then he went by the wharf (King’s Wharf, San Fernando) and buy some fish for us and some to carry back home in Couva.”

She also recalled what an open-minded, giving person he was and said you could call him for anything and he would try his best to help.

His signature phrase whenever he entered a room was “All rise!"

“Whether it’s a church, home, it’s always, ‘All rise!’ From the time people heard that, they knew it was him.”

In addition to “Neppy,” his nicknames were “Kenty” and “Fleabag.”

The family recalled scores of police officers weeping at the scene of the accident.

Valerie said her uncle died two weeks ago and Neptune had told her he did not want her to die before him.

“He said, ‘I don’t know how I going to deal with it. I don’t want that,’ and now he come and rush and gone without a word.”

They said he had visited another officer and friend in Ridgewood before the accident. His friend told him he was “looking kind of tired” and said he should sleep there. But he said he was okay.

“Endless officers calling us. Everybody knew him. Police officers were at the scene crying, some people still don’t even know.”

Neptune applied for early retirement last year and told his family he wanted to travel the world and eventually settle in Germany, a country he loved.

“I say, 'No, mister, no. You staying right here,'” Valerie said. “That is the kind of relationship we had. That kind of closeness, that kind of love where even if we couldn’t live together, we could coexist. He was a family man and will be greatly missed.”

In addition to no rest, the family said they also haven’t been able to eat and are basically “living on painkillers right now for our headaches.”

An autopsy is expected to be done on Monday.

“We just want to give him a nice sending-off. But with covid19, we can’t bring people. And trust me, if this virus wasn’t a thing, it wouldn’t have space to put (so many) people…He was our rock.”