A shoot-out last night between patrolling ranks of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and gunmen in the East Coast village of Buxton left one soldier dead and two persons wounded.
Dead is 24-year-old Troy Williams who took a gunshot to the left shoulder which exited the left side of his chest, according to sources at the Georgetown Hospital last night.
Up to press time this morning, the wounded soldier, Cowyn Torrington, 18, of Agricola, East Bank Demerara was receiving treatment at the hospital. He was shot in the right leg and left thigh. A 29-year-old woman, Thelma Cromwell of 136 Friendship Railway Embankment, was also wounded by a bullet to her right leg and she was receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Hospital also this morning.
Torrington had been the first to arrive at the institution after the shooting, which started sometime around 8.30 pm.
The firefight lasted around 20 minutes and was heard by residents of the village many of whom took cover.
According to reports, an army patrol was making its rounds in the village in the vicinity of the Railway Embankment when the ranks came under fire from a number of gunmen wielding assault rifles. The soldiers returned fire and thus the exchange ensued leading to the wounding of Torrington and Williams.
An army pick up brought the bullet-riddled body of Williams to the hospital, accompanied by ranks of the force, all of whom seemed in battle mode, weapons at the ready. Senior army staffer Colonel Bruce Lovell, who was at the hospital, had to urge the ranks to get a grip of themselves.
Last night residents of the village reported seeing a heavier than usual presence of patrolling ranks who arrived by the truckloads and poured deep into the village. The last casualty for the army by way of criminal elements was in 2004, during a similar operation in Buxton.
Since the beginning of the crime spree in 2002 with the Mashramani Day jailbreak, over two dozen soldiers and police ranks have died at the hands of criminals on the lower East Coast. The Police have been unable to control the situation, made worse with the 2006 disappearance of a large number of AK-47 rifles from Camp Ayanganna.
The police had recently warned of difficulties in patrolling certain parts of the village because of the presence of gunmen.
