A man who took a bullet in the arm trying to stop last year's attempted robbery of Lindo's Market expressed mixed emotions about the 28-year prison term handed to the thief on Monday.

Eugene Eversley, Jr. yesterday told The Royal Gazette , after learning of the severity of Derek Roy Spalding's sentence: "I'm happy that the people in authority are sending a message, especially to those who are putting other people's lives at risk.

"But at the same time, you're looking at a young black male who hasn't even reached a quarter of a century (in age) yet, and he's going to spend the next 28 years in jail.'' Mr. Eversley was one of the customers at the Lindo's Market in Devonshire on June 1, 1996 when a gun-toting Spalding entered the store and demanded money from the cashier.

In a struggle to stop Spalding, he was shot in his right arm.

More than one year later, Mr. Eversley said the whole experience had been "a real mindblower''.

He explained that although many people now call him a hero, being a hero was the furthest thing from his mind.

"I don't want to be a hero,'' the 38-year-old hospital orderly said. "When you hear a gunshot 12 inches from your ear, it's not the sweetest thing in the world.

"My first thought was that my son was coming into the store behind me, and the only thing I could think of was, `what if your bye's up front?' "The whole thing made me angry more than it made me afraid, and I couldn't see myself leaving with the amount of kids and frightened women who were in the store.'' But Mr. Eversley said he harboured no ill-will toward Spalding, despite the fact that Spalding told Police he wished he had killed Mr. Eversley.

"It bothers me to know that he never received the nurturing he needed growing up,'' the father of four said. "A person who isn't loved has no conscience.

And a person with no conscience is capable of anything.'' In reference to a speech made by Spalding in Supreme Court on Monday, Mr.

Eversley said he agreed with some of the comments but said Spalding could have made his point without resorting to violence.

"Yeah, we as a society have let him down,'' he admitted. "If he's been going through trouble since he was young and no one stepped in to correct the situation, then we've really failed him.

"But if a person is willing to hurt others to achieve a goal, then you're just as bad as the people or the society that you're blaming.

"I can understand his anger, because I've been there...but he still can't go around making innocent people suffer.

"And if he felt that bad about the way society was going, why didn't he do something about it, instead of committing a crime that causes him to be remembered as a robber and a thief? "If he wanted to blame the system, I don't understand why he would pick on people who are just as vulnerable to the society as he is.

"It makes me sad, and I feel sorry for him... Because he's got the next 28 years to think about what he's done.''