A West Ruimveldt, Georgetown mother is now dead after she was accidentally shot by a neighbourhood resident, who was firing wildly at a man he had a row with over a stolen bike early yesterday morning.
Florence Forte, 59, of Lot 24 Front Road, succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday morning around 6 am, hours after the shooting.
Clinton Forte, her widower, told Stabroek News that the woman was sitting on her verandah just after 12.30 am when two other residents had a confrontation. During the argument, one of the men whipped out a gun and opened fire indiscriminately.
Florence Forte was struck just above her right eye by the first bullet that was fired. The shooter’s intended target, Brian Wiltshire, 46, of 474 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was also shot. He was struck to the right side of his chest and is presently a patient at the GPH.
Commander of Region 4 (A) Senior Superintendent Phillip Azore told Stabroek News that ranks were searching for the suspect yesterday as the investigation was ongoing. He stated, also, that it was still to be determined whether the case would be investigated as a murder given the manner in which the victim died.
Police subsequently issued a wanted bulletin for the suspect, who was identified as Timothy Evans, 18, of Lot 67 West Ruimveldt Front and said he was wanted for murder.
Clinton Forte was with his wife on the verandah when she was shot. “We were inside and we heard the zinc on the fence making noise, so she told me to go and check it but it wasn’t our fence, it was the neighbours’. While I was checking, she went to the verandah and I come back and tell her but at the same time we heard a commotion across the road and not long after, shots were fired,” he recounted.
He explained that late on Thursday night a group of boys had visited the area and accused the shooter’s family of stealing a bicycle and that led to a commotion. The shooter, who lives in a street adjacent to the Fortes’ home, was running behind his accuser when he opened fire while running out of the street.
The husband said he was standing and talking to his wife, who was sitting at the time. After the first shot was fired, he said he got no response from his wife.
“I talking to her but got no response. So, I called out ‘Flo! Flo!’ But she wasn’t answering and when I raised her head I see blood flowing and there was blood on the floor. She got shot right above her eyebrow. There was a hole. After I see that I called out for my daughter,” the grieving man related.
He added that they called an ambulance to rush the woman to the hospital. However, it never showed up and they had to use a neighbour’s car to transport the wounded woman.
She was still alive when they arrived at the hospital. She was not admitted into the Accident and Emergency Unit until 6 am, when she died.
Meanwhile, her daughter, Shelly James, who lives in the same yard, told this newspaper that her mother was struck by the first of four gunshots. Police, she said, were later able to recover two spent shells.
“After the man go to he, he come out of the street telling the man, ‘Don’t come here! Don’t come here!’ And he run behind the man and start firing shots. The man and my mother got shot, but like he didn’t know he got shot until he ride off and fall on the road,” James said.
She claimed that the ambulance they called for her mother found Wiltshire on the road bleeding and picked him up and transported him to the hospital instead.
According to James, it was not the first time the suspect fired gunshots at persons after being accused of stealing their property.
“This is not the first time. It is happening but because people are fearful for their lives they don’t want talk but look what has happened now! My mother is dead because of this and he has gone into hiding,” she lamented.
