The taxi driver who was shot on Princes Street on Tuesday is still in a critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery and a man has been held to assisting police with the investigation.
Up to press time last evening, investigators were still trying to ascertain the motive for the shooting of Shawn Dummett, 37, of Lamaha Gardens, who is nursing two gunshot wounds to the chest and a third to the abdomen.
At around 2:30 pm on Tuesday, Dummett was driving motor car PLL 3474 with two other men in the vehicle when he suddenly ran out of the vehicle. He was pursued by the two men who discharged shots at him, hitting him to his chest and abdomen, after which they escaped. A police source yesterday confirmed that a man is in custody assisting with the investigation.
Yesterday, many of Dummett’s relatives and friends gathered outside the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he has been admitted a patient, to await word on his condition.
The man’s sister told Stabroek News that when she saw him earlier he was unresponsive and hooked up to life support machines. Relatives, however, had no word from doctors about the man’s condition. The man’s wife, who declined to give her name, said that all she can do was pray to God for Dummett’s full recovery. Some of the man’s relatives yesterday said that they were very upset at a television news report about the incident, after it painted a bad picture of Dummett. A cousin described the report as “scandalous.”
At the scene of the shooting, a witness said he heard two gunshots and saw two men running behind Dummett firing shots. Seconds later, Dummett fell to the ground and was kicked by one of the men while the other discharged several more rounds.
During the ordeal one of the men were overheard saying “Ya s…t got to f…ing dead.” When residents started peeping out, the men fled through the nearby South Alley that connects to Norton Street.
Nothing was stolen from Dummett, while his car, which was left abandoned on Princes Street, was later lodged at the East La Penitence Police Station.
