Witness in Oscar Clarke shooting contacted to ID suspects

An eyewitness to the robbery and shooting at the residence of PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke was yesterday expected to identify suspects held by police in relation to the attack.

Stabroek News understands that a witness was yesterday contacted and told that persons were held in relation to the crime and that the witness had been asked to go to where they were being held to see if a positive identification would be made.

Oscar Clarke
Oscar Clarke

However, up late last evening Linda Clarke said she was told that nothing came of the process to identify the men who shot her husband during the robbery on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, officials from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation said that Clarke, 74, was doing much better yesterday after complaining about feeling ill on Wednesday.

Linda Clarke said that her husband had complained that he was experiencing some amount of pain from his wounds on Wednesday, but was feeling much better yesterday.

Linda, who was preparing to go visit her husband at the hospital, said that the bullet lodged in the man’s hip still had not been removed.

She explained that her husband’s attending doctor told her that they have decided to defer the removal of the bullet, which could be done in another one or two weeks.

According to the doctor, Clarke had lost a lot of blood after he was shot and is currently in no condition to undergo the operation necessary to remove the bullet. In addition to this, it was said that there are concerns about an infection developing if the procedure were to go wrong. As a result, the doctors have decided to leave the bullet as it is for now. It was said that the bullet is not in a position where it can cause further damage.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds visited Clarke, who displayed lacerations to his head from when he had been gun-butted as well as the gun shot wounds he had sustained during the attack.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) release, Clarke, who thought himself “lucky to be alive,” told Hinds that “I’m a fighter, they couldn’t knock me out.”

The Prime Minister commended the man for his courage and wished him a speedy recovery.

Clarke, who is a former Home Affairs Minister, was shot three times as he attempted to fend off armed intruders after four of them made their way into at his home on Tuesday evening. Linda Clarke and her son, Derwyn Lyte, were both assaulted during the intrusion.

Linda said that the men carted off an undisclosed sum of money and two rings, which they took from Lye and his wife.