Shot waitress still in hospital

Onika Luke, the 16-year-old waitress who was shot in her chin during an attempted robbery at a Better Hope restaurant  on Friday, remains a patient at the Woodlands Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

The bullet is lodged in her throat.

Luke, a part time worker at the Chinese restaurant, was shot by a gunman who posed as a customer and attempted to rob the restaurant.

Onika Luke
Onika Luke

Yesterday, her brother, Rickford Ranjee said she is in a stable condition but bemoaned that he could not meet the doctor tending to his sister to learn more about her condition.

Ranjee also questioned the status of the investigations as the police have not visited the family and given any update. Ranjee, a construction worker is the only one in the family that is able to make visits to the hospital as his mother is sickly and his sister is expecting a baby. He said he is the only one able “to go running around and visit her in the hospital.” But that he says is preventing him from earning.

“I am unable to go out and work. We are a poor family… I don’t have a bank account,” he lamented. He noted, however, his sister’s employer is standing the cost of the medical bill.

He added that every time he visits his sister she would only write a few lines as she is unable to speak.

Luke, of Vryheid’s Lust Public Road, East Coast Demerara and a student of St John’s College worked after school to make ends meet.  Her brother said she started working at the Chinese Restaurant, 3 months ago from 5-10 pm daily.

He explained that the money she worked for she used it to aid herself in getting an education