Urel Cummings attacked two police ranks with a kitchen knife on Tuesday and was shot as a result, the police force says.

The injured man was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) sometime  after 6 pm on Tuesday by police. He sustained a gunshot wound which entered his body around the genital area and exited through his thigh.

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told this newspaper yesterday afternoon that police had received a report of simple larceny on Tuesday and proceeded to Cummings’s South Ruimveldt Gardens, Georgetown home. After ranks arrived at the location, the Crime Chief reported, the suspect tried to escape and ran into an alley. It was while in the alley that Cummings reportedly attacked the police ranks and was shot.

“Two police ranks”, a release said, “went to the home of Urel Cummings who was wanted for questioning in relation to a matter of simple larceny that was under investigation.

The ranks informed him as to what he was wanted for and he became abusive and argumentative. During efforts to arrest him he attacked the police with a kitchen knife. He was called upon to desist but continued to attack the police with the knife causing the police to use force and he was shot to his right upper leg.”

The man appeared to be in a stable condition when Stabroek News visited him in GPH’s Male Surgical Ward yesterday afternoon. Cummings, handcuffed to his hospital bed, was in good spirits.

“I am fine,” he said when asked by this newspaper how he was feeling.

Meanwhile, a senior police source told Stabroek News yesterday that Cummings is a “known character” to police. The man, the source said, was recently released from prison.