A man was yesterday shot three times at his Phase 1, Mandela Avenue yard, after five men intruded and attempted to set his house on fire.
Dexter Johnson, 34, was said to be leaving his yard with his motorcycle when the men approached while a second gang remained on the street. Johnson, a father of four, was shot three times—twice to the stomach and once in the back—during the confrontation. Two of the man’s attackers were later held by police, his family said.
The incident occurred around 1.15 pm and according to the man’s niece, upon seeing the men, Johnson began screaming as he attempted to escape his attackers. “He was saying, ‘How y’all gon do me this? Is nah me and y’all got problem!’” she said.
The woman, who lives in the same yard, said she saw the men, who are known to her, as they passed her home on the way to her uncle’s house at the back.
Stabroek News was told that the men destroyed Johnson’s motorcycle before throwing gasoline about the house. “They went saying ‘Bring de match, bring de match… leh we light this house on fire,’ so I run out and start behave bad,” she recalled.
The woman added that a relative’s baby was sleeping in the home at the time of the incident while another family member was inside. “When I tell them a baby in de house, they say they don’t care, kill de whole family,” she added.
She noted that her mother then told the attackers that she would call the police and they fled through the back, over a bridge that leads to the East La Penitence market area.
After the episode, she said, Johnson was discovered in a helpless state beside the house. “He couldn’t talk or nothing, he just went knocking a piece of wood to let us know he was there,” his niece said.
She added that persons helped carry the man out to the street, from where he was subsequently transported to the hospital. When asked if they knew what could have possibly caused the attack, family members said that the man’s two sons have had problems with the men in the past. He was described as a “traveller” who does not reside in Guyana.
When Stabroek News visited the Georgetown Public Hospital, Johnson was said to be undergoing surgery.
