Pandemonium broke out on the Linden Highway at Amelia’s Ward yesterday morning when shots were fired after an army vehicle hit down a woman on a motorcycle, killing her on the spot.
The accident sparked grief and anger among onlookers and the soldiers subsequently fired shots that saw people scrambling for cover.
Eyewitnesses said it was around 7.30 am that 38-year-old Enid Sharpe met her tragic end when the speeding Guyana Defence Force 4×4 DFB 1469 slammed her off her motorcycle.
Four soldiers, who were travelling in the open back of the pick-up, were flung out on impact and two of them were apparently seriously injured and subsequently air-dashed to the Georgetown Public Hospital. However, one was treated and sent away while the other was last night admitted to the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
The army said last night that it had launched an inquiry into the incident. And the police said that the driver had been taken into police custody and was assisting with investigations.
According to eyewitnesses, the highway, in the vicinity of Lovers Lane was lined with schoolchildren and persons on their way to work. Sharpe, a mother of one, was heading to the Linden Foundation Secondary School where she worked as a cleaner. She had just exited Church Lane, South Amelia’s Ward and was in the process of crossing the road when the 4×4 struck her, killing her on impact and crushing her motorcycle into pieces.
“I was standing by de bus shed waiting fuh a bus fuh go down de road when de army van `voops’ pass and de next thing I hear was dis loud bang,” one witness said. The woman said she realized something was seriously wrong when she noticed the pick-up swerving from corner to corner and children who were close to the point of impact screaming and running away. The pick-up had hit the woman, severing her right leg and flinging her yards away. She died on the spot while the pick-up came to a stop some distance away.
The twin brother of the woman was in the vicinity and on hearing what had happened to his sister, rushed to the scene. Shocked at the state of his sister’s body, the eyewitness said, he picked up her severed leg and ran with it toward the pick-up screaming, “Look wha y’all do to me sister! Look wha y’all do to meh sister!”
As the man advanced, the two uninjured members of the GDF who had been in the vehicle, pulled out their weapons and fired shots, the eyewitness said, adding that several shots were discharged. Pandemonium ensued as children and adults scrambled for cover. Policemen from the ‘E & F’ traffic and other departments then arrived on the scene and calmed things down, but this did not last long.
Enid Sharpe’s husband, national bodybuilder Lindy Sharpe soon arrived on the scene. Overwhelmed with grief at the sight of the mangled body of his wife lying on the roadway, he threw himself down and clutched her, refusing to let go. Close friends and neighbours approached and tried to get him to let go of the body, but failed. Approximately one hour had elapsed before a close friend managed to convince the grieving husband to let go.
Meanwhile, a group of residents built a huge bonfire in protest, and began chanting “we want justice, bun de Babylon”. However the protest was short lived as members of the fire service soon arrived on the scene and put out the blaze.
In a press release issued last evening, the GDF said that it had launched a Board of Inquiry into the accident.
According to the army release, a patrol was returning from a road-block at Bamia on the highway when it was involved in the accident. The release said, “three shots were fired into the air to ward off angry relatives and friends of the accident victim who were advancing in a menacing manner toward the soldiers. The police arrived on the scene shortly after and restored order.”
The army said the injured soldiers were taken to the Mackenzie Hospital and subsequently, to the Georgetown Public Hospital “where two of them are still receiving treatment. The other two are being treated at the GDF Medical Centre at Base Camp Ayanganna”. It said that the vehicle’s driver “is cooperating with the police in their investigations into the accident”.
The GDF also extended its deepest sympathies to the relatives of the deceased.
Meanwhile, the police said investigations revealed that the victim “attempted to cross the road just as the GDF vehicle was about to overtake her and was struck down”.
Subsequently, the police said, a number of persons, including a male relative of the deceased who was armed with a length of iron, approached the driver of the GDF vehicle in a threatening manner “causing him to discharge two rounds from his service firearm into the air”. Police said residents later calmed down after being spoken to by joint services officers and Region Ten Chairman Mortimer Mingo.
Following the incident, the unhurt soldiers and E&F division officers were seen gathering spent shells from the road and in the nearby grass.
Residents in the area condemned the soldiers over the shots that were fired. Several persons said that the children who were on the scene were still in a state of shock because of the horrific sight of the accident and the shots which were fired.
At the Georgetown Hospital last evening Private Samuel Parks, 18, was admitted to the HDU with head injuries, while Private Simon Johnson, 19, was treated and sent away.
The other injured soldiers were Private Michael Williams, 20, and Private Charleston Roberts, 18.
Sharpe is the second woman to have died in recent weeks as a result of an accident involving an army vehicle.
Relatives of Mahaiswerie Shiwcharran, who passed away at the Georgetown Public Hospital on April 28 following an accident earlier in the month, have been calling on the authorities to ensure that justice prevails.
The 41-year-old woman was reportedly crossing the East Bank Demerara Public Road at McDoom on the evening of April 8, when she was struck down by an army vehicle, DFB 1482, on the eastern side of the roadway close to the SOL Service
Station. The car was travelling in a southerly direction at the time. She was picked up and rushed to the hospital where she remained unconscious until her death. The woman sustained injuries to her head and other parts of her body and she was on life support until she died on April 28, her relatives related to Stabroek News.
