Voice behind ‘Desmond Eye’ breaks silence Woman behind the year’s biggest viral audio reveals why she kept a low profile for three weeks

When 28-year-old Caresa Edwards dropped the now-infamous line, “Dem pepper-spray Desmond eye”, she wasn’t looking for clout, Internet fame, or comedy. Instead, she was exposing the raw, tense realities between inner-city communities and law enforcement.
“Remember, enuh, if you can pepper spray the member of parliament’s eye, who am I? I am nobody, just a human being living in a ghetto,” Edwards reasoned as she explained her now-viral comments.
“If he is the member of parliament and he is so big, remember this is Desmond the big MP of West Kingston, and you pepper spray his eye, and you can’t tell me you don’t know who Desmond is. In that moment, I was letting people know. I didn’t know it would go viral; I was simply making the world know what is taking place,” she added.
The shocking incident unfolded last month during a high-tension police operation in West Kingston. Minister of Local Government and member of parliament for the area, Desmond McKenzie, was pepper-sprayed by the police during a dispute involving the member of the security forces and one of his constituents.
“There was a lady, and the police drape her up, and Desmond a say ‘No yuh can’t do that’, and him just take out him pepper spray and just go zooooop,” Edwards recalled, detailing the moment the officer unleashed the spray.
Livestreaming on Instagram, Edwards sprang into action as the scene turned chaotic.
“Wi see seh Desmond get pepper-spray, so the crowd just run in and mi take up mi phone and say ‘dem pepper spray Desmond eye’,” she recalled.
Edwards said she did not at any point consider it a joking matter. In fact, she felt the use of her phone was the best way to tell the world what was happening in West Kingston.
“I was just videoing to make the people dem know what is taking place,” she said adding that she was not joking around.
“Maybe how mi a run cross the road people might think seh I am making fun of it, even though it was something that is happening,” she explained.
Describing the horrific incident, Edwards detailed how desperate onlookers tried to help the MP by washing his face with water, to no avail. 
 “Them have to a wash off him face with water and it naah work. His eyes were totally shut – you know that burning sensation – and girl run over the store and get a Serge milk, and just spray it and wash off him face.”
McKenzie later reported that he had to seek medical assistance as a result of the discomfort suffered.
As for Edwards, making a viral video was not on her mind.
“I wasn’t thinking it would be viral, mi just post it to let the people know. It’s early morning and we, the ghetto people, everything happens, we just video it so people can see it,” she told THE WEEKEND STAR.
Meanwhile, unknown to Edwards, her words were spreading like wildfire across the Internet.  The audio from her Live immediately went viral and spawned into endless memes, and non-stop videos across the web. 
“Mi go sleep and wake up back the following morning and mi see everyone a post the part weh mi say dem pepper spray Desmond eye. Just that part, and mi seh Jesus Christ, what have I done?”
Edwards said she even found herself thinking of offering a private apology to the politician. “‘Uncle Desmond, I am so sorry.’ A suh mi a tell meself,” she laughed, adding, “You know sometimes you do something. You don’t do to make a fun of it, but when yuh sit down and a medz pon it, boy mi just a laugh.”
Her phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since.
“Who knows me knows I am the one that make the video, and have been reaching out to me. Every day my inbox is full. Mi family dem a country a text and seh, ‘Girl wah you do go viral. Make the people dem know a you’.”
Not long after, her unfiltered narration of the Desmond McKenzie incident was mixed with Future Fambo’s “Red light, yellow light, pepper light, go...” rhyme. It has since become one of the trendiest mashups.
“If me go waa party mi just hear ‘Dem pepper spray ... ,” her comments cut abruptly by her laughter. “People are saying, ‘Go collect your money because them a say Fambo a do this, Fambo a do that. ...  Connect him and whatever. [But] no, I’m not going to do that, if he wants to reach out, he can,” she said.
Edwards laughed off the fact that she hears her own voice everywhere she goes, revealing that while people constantly push her to confront artistes or register her catchphrase for royalties, she prefers staying out of the scramble.
“I don’t have the time to run behind anybody,” she said before adding, “I am not rich like though guys, mi just like watch from the sidelines.”
Despite hearing her own voice blasted at parties and across social media feeds, the naturally reserved Edwards chose to keep a low profile for nearly three weeks, while the Internet desperately hunted for the mysterious woman behind the audio.
“I wasn’t going to come public,” she said. 
She giggled shyly, explaining that, last Sunday, she simply decided to make a video revealing herself and posted it on TikTok. The post quickly surged past 346,000 views and 1,000 comments. Persons immediately suggested that she was leaving money on the table by laying low.
“People on TikTok are saying, ‘Muma, look how long wi a look out for you. Bread fi a run, or thank you for making us laugh’,” she said.
But the ordinary, humble woman remains unbothered by the hype.
“The woman behind the video is just an ordinary girl trying to get closer to God,” she said.
 Now, with social media followers, family, and friends begging her to cash in on her famous vocal cords with commercial jingles, radio stingers, and voice-over deals, Edwards is taking her time deciding her next big move.