-maintains it was case of mistaken identity
Wayne Smith, one of the survivors of the Savage Street ambush said that the gunmen’s intention on Sunday morning was to kill and stressed that neither he nor the other occupants of the car could have been the intended targets.
Wayne Smith
He, like the other survivors, continues to maintain that the incident is a case of mistaken identity as they had no grievances with anyone that could have fuelled the early morning attack.
The police came under criticism yesterday for their apparent lack of interest in the investigation and their inability to make headway in the case. For the second day running, when Stabroek News contacted the police, there was no solid lead that could prompt an arrest or determine a motive.
Smith at the time of the incident was taking three of his Muslim brothers to the New Mosque in Ruimveldt to pray. He is currently recuperating at a city hospital after undergoing emergency surgery to remove three bullets from his shoulder.
When Stabroek News visited him, his shoulder was heavily bandaged and despite his discomfort he was able to recount his terrifying experience.
According to Smith, the car that he was driving belongs to Denis Edwards and he would usually keep it at his home.
As customary, for some time now, he would first pick up Winston Edwards called Abdullah Muhammed, then his cousin Denis and then anyone else who wanted to go to the Masjid to pray.
“We pray five time a day so we would go out early to pray every morning, We normally leave home at 4 30. It is a habit. It is a way of life and the morning of the incident, it was around the same time too”.
Smith said that on Sunday morning as usual he picked up the two Edwardses and another Muslim brother, Omali (only name given) and just as he was driving down a short street that connects to Savage Street, a man pounced from behind a canter truck parked at the side of the road.
All the men reside in the North East La Penitence area. Winston was sitting in the passenger front seat while Denis and Omali were in the back seat.
Smith recalled that the man moved in the direction of the car and fired a shot in their direction.
“I saw it hit the hood of the car, and I said `squib’ and then I said no. I saw a man in the distance and I said `shots, everybody down!’”, he said.
He said that at the time, he was wearing his seatbelt and this prevented him from ducking in time.
“After I heard shots, I don’t know, Allah was in charge, not me. I killed the machine and I tried diving for cover. But because he (Mohammed) was in the space, I picked up two more shots. I covered him really, Smith told this newspaper.
Smith said that the gunman shot at the car until the magazine was empty. He suspects that the man was armed with an AK 47 rifle.
During this time, Smith was hit a total of three times while Winston sustained one gunshot wound. The quartet, he said, was praying aloud most of the time.
The man said that the place was dark and though he had on his high beam, it was hard to tell if the gunman’s face was concealed.
He said initially he saw one person but after the gunman ran out of bullets, someone else came over the car and fired two more shots with a hand gun and “at the same time all four of us were praying loudly and nobody got hit”.
A mystery
Yesterday Smith could not come up with a reason for the attack and dismissed it as a case of mistaken identity.
“They were just there to kill people that’s it”, he said, when asked if it could have been a robbery attempt.
According to him none of the gunmen came and demanded money or anything else from them. Smith further stressed that this was a route that they used every morning to go to their mosque to pray.
“This is just a mystery you know and that is the bottom of it, mistaken identity. I don’t have no problem with anyone”, the man said from his hospital bed.
Asked if anyone came by during the ordeal the man replied in the negative and later said that it was a resident whose back windscreen was shattered during the incident that took them to the hospital.
Two days have passed since and according to Smith, police are yet to take a statement from him. “I think that the police don’t care, I really think they don’t care.”
He however informed this newspaper that they visited him on Monday and after collecting a warhead that was taken out of his shoulder, they left.
Smith stated that the doctor has told him that he would not regain the full mobility of his arm as a result of the injury he sustained.
Why?
Yesterday Winston was still questioning why they were attacked. He like Smith believed that it was a case of mistaken identity.
He said that all his life he has used one route to get to the mosque and he never encountered a problem until now. According to him, he finds the entire episode strange.
Winston said that the police took a brief statement from him at the hospital but no one has contacted him since.
He had recounted a similar story when Stabroek News spoke with him on Sunday, hours after the incident.
The man recalled that he was sitting in the front passenger seat and immediately ducked and did not see anything except a spark on the bonnet of the car. He explained that as the gunmen let loose a fusillade on the car, Smith was unable to duck down as he had done since the seatbelt prevented him from doing so. He noted that it was dark at the time and so he really could not have seen anything on the outside but was later told that there were three gunmen. He recalled feeling the sensation of being hit and seeing a lot of blood.
According to him, the shooting lasted for about five minutes but a resident said that it lasted for about a minute. In the course of the shooting the gunmen also sprayed the surrounding area with bullets, following which a car pulled up and sped away with the gunmen, said to be three in number. According to reports they were armed with various weapons including a rapid fire gun. During the ordeal, Winston recalled that they called 911 several times but the number always rang out.
Police said in a statement that Smith and Winston were with two other men in motor car PKK 1659 on Savage Street, “when person or persons unknown fired several bullets at them, hitting Smith on his right arm and shoulder and Mohamed on his right hand.” Sixteen 7.62 x 39 and one .32 spent shells were found at the scene, the police added.
The truck that the gunman was hiding behind has since been removed.
It is good to see Wayne has taken up the deen of Islam.
I know he was trained militarily before taking up boxing and the attackers are cowards.
I am certain that the attackers have never had real military experience for thy would have finished their jobs.
It is good to see that he is alive and may the creator continue to guide over him
At times, I heard who ever decided to shoot and kill some times felt or think the targets were witness to some other elegal thing.
“Police came under criticism yesterday”, the article says boldly in second paragraph but we only learn near the end that it came from one of those shot.Understandable that he may say so but how do we know what other investigations are in place. We don’t.
So SN, why try to make your internet edition some sort of cheap crime magazine with all these stale, speculative, hearsay-filled stories about shootings, crime, sex, and mayhem ? The Guyanese , and those abroad, reading public deserves better..
Reddy, Reddy man you are really funny. You spend so much time making corrections to SN’s articles – why not start your very own newspaper. You will provide all the FACTS as you see them and your government will be so proud that you will in time receive some medal of honor for EXCELLENT reporting. Food for thought! Seems like you are wasting time in B/dos – you are really passionate about correct reporting. Go for it man, go for it!!!!!
Agree with you Ever Reddy! When one goes the Guyana, it’s the total opposite – people upbeat and enjoying life and there is development every where you turn (the critics will say with drugs money, but we know better).
Reddy in Barbados, you blog is confusing and it has been compounded by the lack of correct punctuation. be careful man,what you write is for the public consumption not the pee pee pee.
Well these men can rest assured our president is sound asleep he is not worried about this kind of thing at all.
pathetic reddy,i’ve look at the chronicle and there is nowhere in there that mentioned anything about this incident, only the usual political infused propoganda (jagdeo shaking hands with corbin)unlike this papers which is keeping this sad incident alive, and hoping with its daily reports that the criminals would be found, bringing closure to the greaving mother who wants answers.
Dude ! What exactly are the developments you see in that sorry country over the last 20 years ? And don’t give me the nonsense of new buildings and new pathways that you call highways. After all, with all thoe savings from debt relief and funding from EU and Japan and IADB, I would imagine that the jokers must show something for the largesse. But really, pick one sector of the economy and educate me of the development in that regard. You have ten years with which to work. Go!
Hahaha, well said Ne Ne, it is time somebody put Reddy in his place, he is a professional critic, never have anything good to say about anything or anybody, poor fella
Although the gentleman is unable to conjure a motive, there certainly is one. In politically troubled nations like Guyana, powerful men with the aspirations of grandeur will even kill their own supporters if this act will keep wavering supporters in line. Some will commit them to engender retaliation and its consequent confusion. The element of fear like ethnic cleavage is a tool that will be trotted out more and more as we get closer to the 2011 vote.
What do you call powerful men??? Men with AKs???
Fellas fellas take it easy you can rest assured the commandeer in chief is sleeping tighter than tight. He is not worried about these kind of incidents as he indicated earlier.
police act like they dont care, smith boy what you expect from
these incompetent foolice you are living in guyana 83,000 sq
miles of pure corruption,lawlessness change must come my brother
keep praying…
The truth would one day come to light.
It is alarming to note that 911 calls ring out in Guyana.I can only imagine how unprotected citizens feel in native Guyana. I mean in an emergency who can you turn to for help?
It’s a sad situation!!!
guyana is, i would say some 15-20yrs behind in crime fighting/solving technology, maybe much more, the 911 emergency number is not regarded as an emergancy at all in guyana, a laid back attitude and a lame, slow to respond situation is what most callers will encounter when they call the 911 in guyana,little do the authorities know that someone may be dying or in need of life saving help if only someone would just respond to a 911 call, an awakening is muchly needed in this regard.
Guyana is 17 decades behind in law enforcement technology.
Count your lucky stars you’re alive, check your past and maybe you will find out who you’ve offended to cause them to do what they did last sunday.
GET WELL SOON,CONTINUE TO PRAY,GOD WILL PROTECT YOU AND ALL HIS CHILDREN WE CAN ALWAYS DEPEND ON HIM NOT PPL
Thought for the Day
“Time is infinitely more precious than money,
and there is nothing common between them.
You cannot accumulate time; you cannot borrow time;
you can never tell how much time you have left
in the Bank of Life. Time is life….”
~ Israel Davidson
time is an illusion in other words in reality it doen t exist!!!
I would like to wish Wayne a speedy recovery and also your two other friends that were with you, at the wrong place at the wrong time, I am from Nort East also and that incident has scared me from going home this month for my mom’s birthday, I was going to surprise her but that will not happen. The police force sucks and also the 911 department, citizens need assistance and cannot get it in time of need, so can someone tell me how great it is to not have the security render their assistance when it is needed. The government is corrupt and they are not trying to make any changes to all the bull crap that is happening in our country. Wayne, be careful and keep praying God is with you and forever will be. Where are all these guns coming from? Why can’t the police force clamp down on the crime rate?
I know why because they themselves are criminals… and that is the bottom line…..Our country has gone to the dogsssssss…..and it seems that there is no turning back because the security in Guyana is afraid of these criminals…..God Bless America and I feel safer here than in my country of birth and that is the honest truth, crime is every where but the nonsense that is happening in Guyana cannot and will not be accepted here in America…….true that……….
He doesn’t know why this happened, I do not know but it does not sound too plausible to me but let us see what the outcome of this story is.Something does not add up