-cops release wife
Rickford Joseph, the man who was shot in his chest on Sunday, has been moved from the High Dependency Unit to the Male Open Ward and is now in a stable condition at the Georgetown Hospital but says he remembers nothing about the shooting.
Joseph, 37, of Crabwood Creek, said that one minute he was in his yard and the next he knew nothing until he regained consciousness in the hospital. His wife, who was present when Stabroek News spoke with him, said that she was released from police custody on Monday.
The woman explained that she had been taken into custody and kept for questioning. Joseph, according to her, was shot during a robbery on Sunday. She was the only one present at the time and as a result she was hauled in by police to provide more details about what had happened. Further questioned by this newspaper about what happened, the woman declined to comment. Joseph, meanwhile, would only say that he could not remember what happened after he took a bullet to the chest.
In addition to the account given by Joseph’s wife, there are two other versions of the shooting. Police had said that Joseph was shot and wounded to his chest at about 11.30am in his Crabwood Creek, Berbice yard. The man was at the back of his yard emptying garbage when he heard an explosion and felt a burning sensation to his chest, police initially reported. He was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where he was treated and later transferred to the Georgetown Hospital.
However, when Stabroek News visited the Georgetown Hospital minutes after Joseph arrived, a relative said that he was fixing the sink when a “stray bullet” came out of nowhere and hit him. His relatives had refused to comment further, insisting that it was a family matter and they did not want the incident reported in the media.
