-police say he was a robbery suspect and fired at them
By Zoisa Fraser
A hair-raising chase of a motorcyclist by police on Princes Street ended yesterday afternoon with the ranks shooting the man in the upper arm after he allegedly fired shots at them.
Twenty-one-year-old Odell Smartt of Lot 12 Princes Street was admitted a patient at the Georgetown Hospital last evening in a stable condition.
From all accounts, the chase began just before Hardina Street and the police began firing at the biker as he sped along Princes Street. It all ended four corners away.
Following the shooting, the ranks alleged that the man had fired at them. Smartt has since denied doing so. A search of the area by the lawmen unearthed nothing.
A resident of the area told Stabroek News yesterday that he witnessed Smartt shooting at the ranks. According to him as he rode, the man was exchanging the gun from hand to hand as he challenged the ranks. No other resident reported seeing the man with a gun.
In a statement last night, the police said that while responding to a report of an armed robbery committed on a building contractor on Sheriff Street around 4.10 pm, ranks of a police patrol came under fire from the suspect and returned fire, hitting him in the arm.
The police said that building contractor Omar Mohamed had parked his vehicle on Sheriff Street when he was confronted by a gunman who rode up on a motorbike. The gunman grabbed $230,000 and fled. It was then one of the patrols caught up with Smartt. During the exchange of gunfire, the police said that their vehicle hit a parked vehicle resulting in damage to both.
According to the reports reaching Stabroek News, when Smartt had passed Chapel Street, a rank who was in the police car, managed to shoot him in the arm before the vehicle rammed into the back of the motorcycle sending the man crashing to the ground. With blood gushing out of his arm, he managed to run into a yard located at Lot 20 Princes Street, where he attempted to get away by breaking though a zinc fence at the back. It was here that the ranks caught up with him. A trail of blood led from the motorcycle all the way to the fence.
When Stabroek News arrived at Princes Street, many were gathered along the route voicing their dissatisfaction at the police shooting although persons were walking and standing on the road.
One woman reported to Stabroek News that the way the police were behaving it appeared as through she was in the “Wild Wild West”. Residents said that after hearing the shots “they hit the ground” and only ventured out when it had subsided.
A resident living close to where the man was shot said that “we hear de gunshots and I took to the ground. When I come out I see de police and a man bleeding”.
Outside Lot 20, the motorcycle that Anthony was riding lay at the side of the road with a bumper from the police car sticking out at the back.
The police car was a few feet away, with visible damage to the front left side and two bullet holes – one to the left side of the windscreen and the other on the bonnet.
Many of the curious flocked the scene as heavily armed policemen scoured the scene. They left after about twenty minutes.
This newspaper noticed that bullets were lodged in the front wall of a nearby concrete house and in a wooden banister. A spent shell was also recovered by residents near a tree, just before Halley Street.
Speaking to Stabroek News a woman said that after he fell, the biker ran through the yard. She said about four uniformed ranks were after the man.
The woman said that after she heard the shots she ran.
“I run man. I had to run” she said adding that the ranks were firing all the time. The woman said that she attempted to run behind the man to see what was happening, but the ranks told her to move before she got shot.
Meanwhile, while preparing to enter the x-ray department last evening the man said that he did not fire a gun. His left upper arm was bandaged and he was taking saline.
“They shoot me because I ain’t had on no helmet… me ain’t shoot at them. Me ain’t had no gun”, he said adding that the chase began from the corner of Norton Street and Louisa Row.
He said that the only problem he was involved in was a phone story.
Don’t live here
When Stabroek News visited the address that Smartt had given to the police at the hospital, his relatives denied that he lived there.
According to his grandmother Daphney Smartt, her grandson lived with her for two months when he was much younger and was then taken away by his mother. The grandmother said that she had seen him next door but that he left and the next thing she knew she was being told that police were chasing him. She said that when she looked out a police vehicle and an open back vehicle were pursuing him. While it remains unclear where the man lived, this newspaper was told that he was a frequent visitor to the area.
Another relative said that earlier in the day, she saw him riding up and down Princes Street and remembered telling him to stop since he didn’t have a licence.
In January, Smartt, who had given his address as 20 Princes Street, Wortmanville, and Earl Joe of Meadow Brook, were charged with snatching a cellular phone.
Reports are that moments after committing the act on January 21, the two were caught and given a sound thrashing before being handed over to the police.
On the day of their court appearance they however pleaded not guilty and were released on $50,000 bail each.
