US-based Guyanese shot dead, two injured
The police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of a 36-year-old man and the critical wounding of two others in a shooting incident on Mandela Avenue early yesterday morning.
Dead is Mark Anthony Sancho of ‘QQ’ Bent Street, Wortmanville and Richmond Hill, Virginia, United States. Two other men, Junior Callendar also called ‘Baby Junior’ and 25-year-old Osmond Forester were said to be in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation up to late last night.
Callendar was said to have been shot about five or four times about his body. Stabroek News was told yesterday that a fourth person, who was in the car was in police custody assisting them in their investigations.
A release from the Guyana Police Force said that the shooting took place at around 0420 hrs yesterday on Mandela Avenue in the vicinity of the Chinese Embassy.
According to the release, the three men along with another, who got away unscathed, were proceeding south along Mandela Avenue when persons in a passing car fired upon them.
The release said that the men were assisted by a passing taxi driver who transported them to the hospital where Sancho was pronounced dead on arrival. He reportedly died of a single gun shot wound to the chest.
The release said that the car, a blue Marino, PHH 4643, was removed later in the morning from the trench in which it ended up after the shooting. Two bullet holes were discovered in the right side.
Yesterday Sancho’s family said he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”
They could not think of any reason why anyone would have shot at the father of five who has been living in the United States for the past ten years and only -returned to the country last week Sunday to visit his mother.
According to a relative of the dead man, on Sunday night Sancho left his mother’s home on Bent Street, along with a cousin, for the Dynasty Night Club on Aubrey Barker Street.
However, he reportedly left the cousin at the night club in the company of some friends saying he was going to the Sheriff Night Club on Sheriff Street. It is suspected that the man was returning from the Sheriff Street night spot when he met his death.
His relatives said they were informed shortly after the shooting about the man’s demise. They visited the hospital and identified his body.
The mourning family members, some of whom had only travelled from Berbice yesterday morning after they heard of his death, were yesterday unable to say in whose company the man was at the time of his death.
Yesterday, skid marks possibly caused after the driver of the car was shot and lost control could still be seen on the road.
The police yesterday were unable to shed any light on why the car might have been shot at.
Acts of violence around the country, including armed robberies, have escalated since February 23, when five armed and dangerous men made their escape from the Georgetown Prison.
