A teenage taxi service dispatcher was shot in the neck after two bandits pounced on him and his driver on D’Urban Street last night.
Emmett Sauers, 18, of A Field, Sophia and an employee of C&J Express taxi service, was last night being treated by doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital and is in a stable condition, relatives said.
He was shot in the neck during the robbery and the bullet exited and eventually lodged in his right shoulder. Following the shooting, the two robbers, who were both armed with handguns escaped on foot through an alleyway that leads to Hadfield Street. The bandits are said to be known to persons in the area.
Rosdale Sutton, the taxi-driver, in whose car Sauers was sitting, told Stabroek News that the incident occurred at about 7:50 pm. He said that he had just pulled up and parked opposite the C&J Express taxi service on Durban Street, where they both worked, when the two men suddenly appeared on both sides of the vehicle. Sauers was sitting in the front passenger seat. He said that both of the men, who appeared to be in their 20’s, were armed; one with a 9mm handgun and the other with a .32 pistol.
They did not conceal their faces.
Sutton recalled that the bandits told him to “pass it” but he was not going to give in so easily though he was relieved of a gold ring and band and $8000. “I tell them men y’all ain’t gon get nothing suh and then they buss the shot”, the still-shaken man recalled.
The gunman at Sauers side had fired a single shot at him. Sutton said it was not clear whether the teenager was robbed.
The bullet entered his neck, exited and lodged in his right shoulder.
Following the shooting, the bandits fled through an alleyway that leads to Hadfield Street. A car took Sauers to the hospital.
According to information, the two bandits are known and were at an internet café opposite the taxi service throughout yesterday.
Sauers’ relatives gathered at the hospital last night and his father, Mark Harding told this newspaper that he was in a stable condition. He said that surgery to remove the bullet was not expected to be done last night though his son was admitted to the medical institution.
Police were on the scene at D’Urban Street and when this newspaper left, they were preparing to tow the vehicle to the Brickdam police station as the bandits had grabbed the car keys before fleeing. Investigations are continuing. (Gaulbert Sutherland)