- Battling for life at GPHC
In what is believed to be an execution attempt, gunmen early yesterday opened fire on a taxi driver at Cummings and Sixth Streets, Alberttown, leaving him in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Up to press time, the taxi driver, Leslie Woode, 25, of Campbellville, Georgetown was unconscious and doctors in the health institute’s Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E) were trying their best to save his life.
The 25-year-old was shot to his head, chest and shoulder.
Sources said that Woode’s face was damaged by a bullet which entered through his forehead, he also sustained internal injuries.
According to reports, a little after 04:00am yesterday, Woode had just dropped off a group of Brazilian Dancers at Cummings Street; after which he was seen in his car talking on his cellular phone in a corner of the Street.
Minutes after, a green car reportedly pulled up alongside Woode’s white 212 and opened fire after which they fled the scene. A number of spent shells were recovered.
Police, in a statement said that Woode was standing on the roadway at Cummings and Sixth Streets, Alberttown, when shots were discharged at him from a passing motor vehicle. He was hit about his body.
Yesterday, when Kaieteur News visited the scene, eyewitnesses were giving a mixed version of what transpired.
One person said that the 25-year-old man was pulled from a drain in Cummings Street around 04:10am yesterday with gunshots to his forehead, upper body and shoulder. “After the men them fire off the six shots I run in a nearby yard because the men them speed off the scene and they fire off some more shots when they de leaving.”
The eyewitness also said that residents of the area after hearing and witnessing the ordeal were afraid to come outside and render assistance to the man who had his hands in the air as if he was pleading for assistance.
Another eyewitness who requested anonymity said that when he heard the gunshots he ran behind a car to avoid getting shot and heard a man shortly after calling for help, but did not venture outside.
“The man who been in the front seat pull out the gun and shoot he about six times. I see this man buss up after them bullets ketch he and fall to the ground. He keep saying ‘Help! Ow lawd somebody help me’. But it was early so nobody ain’t come out,” the eyewitness said.
The man added that about 10 minutes later, police arrived on the scene and took the man to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he has remained in a critical condition.
Meanwhile, at the hospital yesterday, family members stood quietly in front the hospital’s A&E awaiting word from medical practitioners about his condition.
The injured man’s fiancé, Jasmaine Murray, could not relate what had transpired yesterday morning.
She said that Woode would normally return home from work every night at 09:00pm and when he didn’t go home on Thursday, she and his mother got worried and made several calls to his cellular phone but none were answered.
“We keep calling but nobody answered. It was around 09:00am today (yesterday) his mother called back his phone and a police answered and said he is at the hospital,” Murray said.
The woman said that her fiancé has no enemies and has never been attacked before.
Woode has been described as a quiet person who was never involved in any wrongdoings. His friends are few and are known to his family members as “good people.”
The man’s mother told Kaieteur News that ever since her son has been shot, she has been receiving several threatening phone calls from blocked numbers. The woman is calling on the police to conduct a thorough investigation.