Guyana: Mentally unstable man shot by police in his hand

Guyana: A 48-year-old man was allegedly shot in his hand by police attached to the Mahaicony Police Station in Guyana, as claimed by his aunt. The man belonged to Perth Village, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and stated that the incident happened on Sunday when police shot him.

The man’s aunt Alison Gomes, of Supply, Mahaica, said that James is allegedly mentally unstable and that she was only informed that her nephew was shot at around 17:00h yesterday afternoon.

Gomes said: “We got a phone call from my niece claiming that police shot my nephew. We left Mahaica and went up to the scene where the thing happened. When we reach home by our niece we meet our nephew with a gunshot wound in his hand. We asked him who shot him, and he claimed that Mahaicony Police shot him.”

She further continued,” We left him in the house and we went to the station, we asked the police for assistance because he got shot by police. They [police] claimed that they don’t know anything about the shooting at Mahaicony Station. We begged them to assist to go and handcuff his hands so that we could get to take him to the hospital because he behaved badly on us.”

Gomes then left the station and contacted 911 for the man to be taken to the hospital to receive medical attention.

James was then taken to the Mahaicony hospital. He was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), where he was treated and later discharged.

The police of Georgetown have launched an investigation on the matter and the aunt claimed that his nephew had nothing to do with the police. She said that when they reached the hospital, the boy was shot by one of the policemen, however, they tried to stop them, but the bullet passed through his hand, injuring the boy badly.