A 45-year-old America Street money-changer was shot on Wednesday night and robbed by two bandits of an undisclosed amount of money and his licensed firearm, seconds after he arrived home.
Orson Thompson of Lot 59 Light Street, Alberttown was shot in the abdomen and is currently a patient in the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Hospital where he is expected to undergo surgery to remove the bullet.
During the ordeal, which lasted no more than five minutes, a dog in a neighbouring yard was shot dead by one of the gunmen.
From all appearances, the men had planned their attack on Thompson, who has been in the money-changing business for over 20 years. They knew exactly what to ask for when they confronted him.
In a bizarre twist, the men returned about 30 minutes after they had shot and robbed Thompson, this time using a different mode of transportation and were seen searching the area for something but left empty handed. There is speculation that the men had returned to look for spent shells.
Although a police station is located not far away, it took ranks nearly one and a half hours to arrive at the scene and they therefore missed the return visit by the bandits.
At Thompson’s home, things looked normal except for traces of blood where the dog had fallen after being shot.
Thompson’s wife Patricia Amsterdam told Stabroek News that he was taken for an x-ray at a private hospital yesterday morning and the bullet was discovered to be lodged near his ribs.
The woman said that she was uncertain as to how much money was in the bag her husband had but said it was a large sum.
Relatives were still in shock over the incident when this newspaper visited the home. One of Thompson’s close relatives, who wanted to remain unnamed, recounted that just before 11 o’clock she was sitting on the back step talking to someone on the telephone when she heard four explosions. She said that at first she thought that it was persons in the area playing with squibs but later realized that could not be since it was a bit late.
Remembering that Thompson’s daughter had just left to go out and fearing that something might have happened to her, the woman said, she ran through the house to a front window and saw Thompson lying in the middle of the road. His motor- cycle was still running and was parked in front of the gate.
Stabroek News was told that the man had apparently parked his motor bike in front of the gate and had gone to open it when two men hiding behind a parked bus a few feet away pounced on him.
The relative told this newspaper that the men ordered “Rastaman give me the bag and the gun”, adding that after Thompson handed over the bag with the money, they relieved him of his licensed firearm. She said that the men fled in a car but returned later on motorcycles looking for something on the road. She opined that it might have been the spent shells.
The police, she said, came about one and a half hours later and found two spent shells at the scene.
The relatives said that from all appearances, Thompson put up a fight with the armed bandits since his watchband burst.
She recounted that when they went out to Thompson he was conscious but crying out for pain in his side adding that there wasn’t much blood.
Relatives told Stabroek News that the area where the incident occurred was not dark but stressed that the parked bus was a hiding place for the gunmen.
This newspaper was told that about six years ago, Thompson was beaten by bandits who later escaped with a moneybag containing $2M.
Police are continuing their investigations into the incident.