Shot rice farmer stable

- wife maintains cops at scene did not help

Fyuse Hossein, 63, the rice farmer who was shot and robbed at Church Street on Friday, is in now a stable condition at a private hospital, his wife Omeela Hossein has said.

Hossein said the hospital is currently monitoring her husband because he lost a lot of blood. He is now receiving transfusions.

The woman had initially said that her husband was gun-butted and a bullet grazed his head, however, she has since learnt that the bullet cut through the top of his neck and caused him to sustain a serious injury. The farmer had just parked his vehicle at Water Street, Georgetown, when he was confronted by two men, one of whom was armed with a firearm. The bandits demanded his bag, which contained $2.5 million in cash, but he resisted and was shot to his head. The men took the bag and escaped on a motorcycle, the police had said in a press release.

While the robbery was transpiring, Hossein has said she was screaming and waving at a female police officer, who sat at the window of a nearby police outpost, but no help was rendered.

When Stabroek News visited the mobile outpost on Friday, the officer claimed she was not at the window and no one waved to her.

The woman said she was at the door having a conversation with a senior police officer and could not have offered any assistance because she works alone at the outpost.

When Stabroek News contacted the ‘A’ Division Commander Clifton Hicken, he said that it was not the policewoman’s duty to deal with the robbery. Hicken said there was a detective on the scene when the crime occurred and he dealt with the matter.

Stabroek News then contacted Hossein again and the woman said no one from the police outpost helped her after the robbery. She said she had to drive her husband to the hospital on her own because he was losing a lot of blood.

The woman said the police contacted them at the hospital and not at the scene where the robbery transpired.

Stabroek News also spoke to a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, and he explained that the duties of a police at an outpost are to collect statements, make reports and investigate.

However, once a police officer witnesses a robbery, it is his/her duty to render assistance, the officer said, while adding that failure to do so may result in the rank facing disciplinary proceedings.