Paradise vendor shot in robbery

A 37-year-old Paradise man who was robbed early yesterday morning is nursing a gunshot wound to his left wrist in the Open Ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).

Michael Jones, a vendor of First Street, Paradise, was “shot and injured in his left hand”, a police press release said. Investigations, according to the police, revealed that Jones was walking along the road on his way home when he was confronted by an unidentified man who discharged a round at him and escaped.

When Stabroek News visited Jones yesterday at the hospital he was in stable condition. His left arm and head were bandaged.

The vendor said that he was walking along Factory Road just after midnight when he noticed a man walking towards him. According to Jones, the man turned into a corner ahead and waited there for him. Jones told Stabroek News that he became suspicious so he moved off the road and started to walk along the left slope.

“Just before I reach the corner he turn off,” Jones recalled, “he point a gun at me and tell me don’t run”. He further explained that he decided to “take a chance” and run but his slippers caused him to slip.

Jones said after that he remembers being lashed in the head with the gun and he and the man started to scuffle. “I hear the gun fire off, I feel a burning on my hand and I say “Oh lord I get shoot”,” he said.

The robber then stripped him of his wristwatch and money and fled the scene. Jones said that after the attack he was a bit shocked but got up and walked for over 30 minutes back to the main road before he got a vehicle to take him to GPHC where he was treated and admitted.

“I decide to take a chance and see if I could get away,” the man said, “’cause now ah days dem robbing you then sending you to your maker”.