Robber shoots man in mouth

A young South Ruimveldt man was shot in his mouth last night by a bandit who cornered him in a desolate area along Abary Street in Lamaha Springs.

The robbery occurred around 7:45pm when the man, whose name was not released, was crossing a bridge linking Sophia and South Ruimveldt, to visit his mother in ‘B’ Field, Sophia.

According to a police source, the man was walking when he saw another man come out from some bushes with a bicycle. The man rode past him but then suddenly turned around and followed him.

One resident of Abary Street said she saw a man running in her direction then fall into a nearby trench. “Then I heard he was screaming, ‘Help me! Thief!’” she said, noting that she saw blood covering his face and his shirt.

She said he came to her gate yelling for help, crying out that he had just gotten robbed. She added that he said the thief told him to “freeze and don’t move” but he resisted and confronted the man. The robber then pulled out a gun and shot him in his mouth. “He told me he run away and the man ride away,” the woman said.

She said she quickly called 911 but no one answered. So she tried the West Ruimveldt Police Station and a responding police patrol collected the young man and transported him to the hospital.

He was wheeled into the emergency unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital with a blood covered face. Police remained there with him, taking information.

The state of his condition remains uncertain as he was sent in for immediate surgery.