A man was early yesterday morning found near the Georgetown Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to his legs and police are trying to ascertain if he was part of a gang that came under fire during attempts to break into a Jonestown, Mahaica home, late Thursday night.
Rodwell Joseph, 37, of 138 James and King Edwards Street, Albouystown, is now a patient of the hospital, where he was found sometime after 2am. He was subsequently taken to the nearby Accident and Emergency Unit by a passerby. Joseph is insisting that he was wounded during a scuffle with armed bandits at Thomas Lands.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said that he did not have all the details. However, he noted that it is suspected that the man was wounded during the Mahaica incident.
Joseph, who is under police guard in hospital, said that he was attacked by three men in the vicinity of the National Park.
He explained that after leaving his girlfriend’s home, the men pulled up in a car and asked him where he was going.
He indicated that he was heading to “town” and, according to him, another passenger in the car asked him if he had money.
When he responded in the negative, he said the men jumped out of the vehicle and a scuffle ensued. Joseph said that in his bid to escape he was shot at and sustained injuries to both legs. The men, he added, took his cellular phone and his watch.
When asked how he made it to the hospital, the man said that he “hop-hop hop-hop and then when ah reach pon de corna deh (East and New Market Streets) ah end up falling down.”
The man’s legs were heavily bandaged and his left foot was bleeding profusely. He explained that he had about four pellets in the bleeding foot and at least five in the other.
Stabroek News was told that Joseph was not cooperating with the police and had said that someone shot him outside the hospital. Residents told this newspaper, that they had heard of the shooting and was shocked because Joseph wasn’t known to be a troublesome character.
Police sources further said that the injured man is a known character who was involved with various crimes, including armed robbery. Joseph denied this description though he admitted that he was recently released from prison. “No not me! Ah went in de lockups de other day but not fuh armed robbery and dem thing. Me don’t deh in dem thing,” he told this newspaper.
Mahaica shooting
Earlier, at Jonestown, Mahaica, a vigilant security guard foiled a break-in at a home, shooting one of the perpetrators in the legs.
Stabroek News was told that around 12:45 hours, four men approached the home of overseas-based Guyanese Ulric Grant, at Lot 1, Vor-Zig-Tig-Heid, Jonestown. One of the men was armed with heavy-duty cutting pliers.
As the man with the cutting device attempted to get over the gate leading to the property, he was accosted by the guard on duty and was shot several times to the legs with a shotgun.
The guard told this newspaper that he observed a silver grey car passing the home. He said he immediately suspected something was amiss when the car spun around rapidly at a corner some 100m away and stopped on the parapet outside Grant’s home.
The guard added that as the men exited the car, he took up a position at the front of the home. He noted that the men appeared to have been familiar with the area. He said one of the men climbed over the fence while another who carried what “looked like a firearm” passed the item to his colleague.
The guard said he told the intruder to “hold it” and the intruder exclaimed, “Oh shucks he deh in.” According to the guard, the man panicked and dropped the instrument and he fired at him, hitting him in the legs. He said the injured man limped away from the scene while his colleagues sped away north along the public road, passing through Jonestown as residents gathered.
The guard said since the area was dark, no one knew where the injured man was until approximately 45 minutes later when a car, which resembled the vehicle the intruders used, approached and its occupants asked “who goin to town.”
He said the residents were suspicious of the men and their unusual queries, adding that the men sped off and “picked-up” a man further up the main road. He said neighbours traced blood stains, leading to the area where the man entered the car and according to him a report was subsequently made to the police at the Mahaica Police Station.
At the scene, the ranks on duty retrieved a hat, a watch and the cutting pliers while a description of the car was given to a traffic patrol.
The security guard noted that the police informed him that a patrol perused the car but the vehicle disappeared along the East Coast Demerara Public Road.
The man stated that the owner of the home where the incident occurred arrived in the country yesterday morning and according to him , the intruders may have had prior knowledge of the “inside of the house.” He said another man, who acts as a caretaker of the property during the day, had visited him at the home close to an hour before the shooting, and he noted that he was suspicious about the visit as the man was accompanied by an unknown male, as well as a female. He said the male was surveying the house as he spoke to the caretaker, whom he noted appeared nervous and who was on his mobile phone. He said he has since lodged a statement with the police.
