‘Startled fowl thieves’ shoot man in groin

Startled fowl thieves shot a Nouvelle Flanders man in the groin yesterday morning, minutes after he entered the yard where he rents an apartment.

Rovin Moniram is currently a patient in the Male Surgical Ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). The 29-year-old was transferred to the city institution after receiving initial treatment at the West Demerara Regional Hospital. He is in a stable condition.

When he walked into the yard at 2 am yesterday, Moniram told Stabroek News from his hospital bed, he startled two men who he suspected were there to steal fowls. He was surprised to happen upon the men, the injured man said, and believes that the man who shot him may have been equally startled at having him walk in the yard at that hour of the morning.

“I does normally go home early,” Moniram explained, “like around 10 or 11 in the night but this morning [yesterday] I end up staying out too late…” The man said there were several apartments in the yard and he rented one at the back. “Some people in the yard does mind fowl and I guess is the fowl the man them come to thief,” he said.

Moniram recalled that he had just entered the yard and was making his way to his door when he became aware of the presence in the yard. The next thing he heard was a loud sound, felt a stinging pain in the groin and realized that he had been shot.
“I telling you,” he said, “it got to be fowl dem come to thief because me and nobody don’t have a problem and dem didn’t even rob me.”

In a press release last evening police said that they are investigating the circumstances which resulted in Rovin Moniram of Nouvelle Flanders, West Bank Demerara suffering a gunshot wound to the groin. The incident, police reported, occurred at about 2 am.

A senior police source has since told this newspaper that Moniram’s story of how he was shot “does not add up” and the matter is being thoroughly investigated.