Driver in Cro Cro video: 'I don't wish him bad'

A man claiming to be the driver involved in an altercation with calypsonian Weston “Cro Cro” Rawlins on Wednesday denies using a racist slur at the veteran performer and says despite his outbursts, he does not want Cro Cro to lose his job.

Speaking with Newsday, a man who identified himself as the driver said he and his wife were driving to Port of Spain from Couva at around 1.30 pm when the incident happened.
"We were driving behind him from Couva to Chase Village behind him and we noticed him driving a little erratic, dipping in and out of lanes," the man said.

"All of a sudden without warning, he stepped on the brakes and came to a sudden stop. My wife got frightened and we almost hit him from behind.

"I came around him and saw that he was on his phone. When he saw me looking at him, he drove alongside me. All this time I didn't know who he was, but my wife took out her phone and started to record the situation. That's when it began."

The man said he did not use any insulting language to Rawlins and said the video shown on social media was a recording of the entire incident.

He said while he was upset with Cro Cro's handling of the situation and the drama it has stirred, he did not want him to be in any trouble with the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), where he is a regional co-ordinator.

"We don't want any more bacchanal to come from this, which is part of the reason why I don't want to give my name. I don't wish him bad or want him to lose his job.

"But he has to know that he was in the wrong and if we were slower to react, we could have been in a bad accident or worse yet, dead."
Rawlins was suspended from CEPEP over the incident and a former law enforcement officer has been hired to investigate it.