One of the miners shot and robbed on Monday at a bar in the city remains in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he is on a life support machine.
Glen Xavier, 26, of Harlem, West Coast Demerara and Orin John, 48, of St Cuthbert’s Mission, were both shot and robbed in the attack, which occurred around 9pm at the Corn Bread Mini Mart hangout spot at D’Urban and Lime streets.
Two men armed with handguns carried out the attack and shot the miners during a scuffle, before escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash on two Honda CG Motorcycles.
Xavier, who was shot in his chest and left hand, and John, who was shot in the abdomen, later underwent emergency surgery at the Georgetown Hospital to have the bullets removed. Stabroek News was reliably informed that Xavier is in a critical condition and is currently hooked up to a life support machine in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.
John, who is in a stable condition and remains a patient in the Hospital’s High Dependency Unit (HDU), yesterday said that he is recovering very well.
Recounting the attack to this newspaper, he said that he and Xavier, whom he met in the interior, had travelled to the city on a shopping trip. He added that they bought all the items that they needed to take back to the interior and subsequently went for a drink at the bar, where the attack occurred.
“A bus pulled up and two men rushed out and started to shoot and I tried to duck…,” he said, adding that when the first bullet hit him, he did not fall. When the second bullet hit, John added, he fell and became unconscious.
He explained that he usually travels to the city often to do shopping and this was the first occasion that he has been robbed.
He speculated that he and Xavier were trailed during the day before the attack. He added that when the police visited him in the hospital, they informed him that they had a man in custody.
Police, in a statement, did not disclose that a suspect had been held.
