City Constabulary ranks set up barriers moments after the vendor was shot on Regent Street, Georgetown
A Cuban vendor was shot during a robbery outside a Regent Street, Georgetown store around midday on Wednesday.
The injured woman has been identified as Maria Puig, 61, of Lot 25 Laluni Street, Queenstown, Georgetown. She was shot to the right hand, while bullet fragments caused abrasions to her abdomen.
Reports are that about 12:10h, two bandits rode up on a CG motorcycle and robbed the Cuban, who sold coffee and other food items.
Eyewitnesses told Guyana Times that one of the bandits was armed with a gun. Reports also indicated that the gunman leaped off the bike and attacked the woman, relieving her of $5000. However, City Constables rushed to the vendor’s aid and the bandits fired a shot which hit the woman.
The armed man and his accomplice escaped on the motorcycle. The woman was picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was admitted.
Meanwhile, the owner of the store outside which the woman was vending told this publication that he was attending to customers when he heard the single gunshot.
On Tuesday, a bar at Crane Old Road, West Coast Demerara (WCD) was robbed of $150,000, just one day after a Digicel outlet at Vreed-en-Hoop was relieved of all of its mobile phones.
Against the backdrop of over 20 robberies being recorded in the WCD area, several residents and businessmen met with acting D Division (West Demerara) Commander Leslie James, who suggested that at least two gangs of individuals may be involved in carrying out the robberies, many of which included excessive violence. James encouraged business owners to install more video cameras and noted that the area would be closely monitored.
