Linden man still recovering from police shooting one year on

A year after he was shot in his foot by police in Linden, Ray Wills is still unable to walk without help.

Wills, 53, of Wismar Housing Scheme, was one of dozens of persons shot during protests in Linden initially sparked by government’s announcement that there would be an increase in electricity tariffs in the town. The protests started in early April of last year and escalated in July, when police took up a presence in the streets of Linden.

Wills, a father of three, was shot on July 12, 2012, six days before three men were fatally shot on the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge after protestors failed to heed police warnings to disperse.

Speaking to Stabroek News on Tuesday, Deborah Wills said that because of her husband’s injury, he is unable to work and earn so as to provide for his family. Prior to the shooting, he was a Drainage and Irrigation Authority worker and his job entailed a lot of footwork.

Deborah Wills
Deborah Wills

The woman explained that her husband was shot in the lower part of the right leg. The bullet shattered the bone. “Due to the injury he is like an incapacitated person… he can’t really walk up to now,” she said, while adding that he has to learn to walk all over again. The cast was removed in May, she added and he began physical therapy last Thursday.

“He is more or less confined to the house, unable to earn. He was the sole bread winner of the family and we were not compensated anything, the fact being that he was not injured on July 18. He was injured on July 12 when everything started to heat up,” the distraught woman added.

Speaking about the circumstance surrounding the shooting, Deborah Wills said that they received information that the armed forces were in Linden at the bridge and they were coming all along the main road leading up to the Wismar Housing Scheme.

She said they were also told that the ranks were shooting tear gas. As a result, her husband decided to go to Half Mile, which is located close to the bridge, to check on his parents. It turned out that the neighbours had already ensured that they were safe, she said, while adding that her husband returned home.

But when he returned home their children were not there so he went back on the road to look for them, she explained.

She said that her husband met their youngest son at the Four Corner and he said that one of his brothers had left for home and the other was at the next corner.

Ray Wills poses with his grand daughter at his home in this Arian Browne photo. The bottom section of his foot around the ankle area  looks slightly deformed. He has to use crutches (to the left of the picture) to move around.
Ray Wills poses with his grand daughter at his home in this Arian Browne photo. The bottom section of his foot around the ankle area looks slightly deformed. He has to use crutches (to the left of the picture) to move around.

Wills said that the man decided to use the route that runs through the scheme to get to the other side to see what was happening. It was while making his way around a bend that he walked into gunshots. The woman explained that the ranks were shooting after a group of fleeing young men, among whom was their eldest son.

After he was shot, she said, her husband fell to the ground and their son turned back to help him.

She said that while trying to move his father out of the line of fire, he was too was shot by the lawmen, who hit him in his upper thigh. She said that her son was unable to go to work at Bosai for several months.  “I would like to see them prosecuted for what they did and I also need compensation for my family because due to this thing all meh bank account empty right now,” Wills told this newspaper.