Five persons including a three-year-old boy are now dead after the car they were travelling in was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting in Cummings Lodge last night.
Dead are Steve Jupiter, 37, of 12 Industry, ECD, Christopher George, 38, of Sixth and Light Streets, Alberttown, Neil Jupiter, 3, of 288 Independence Boulevard, and a fourth person who was only identified as ‘Dice Man.’ Fiona Singh, the mother of Neil Jupiter, passed away this morning at the Georgetown Hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.
The shooting occurred at Second Field, Cummings Lodge. According to reports reaching this newspaper, Singh, her son and Jupiter were visiting Singh’s cousin in Second Field. As they were leaving the cousin’s home in the car they were attacked by unknown persons who fired a barrage of shots at their vehicle.
The shooting was estimated to have occurred some time around 8pm. At the scene, police had cordoned off the area and there was a crowd of people trying to get a view of the bodies that had not yet been taken away. Jupiter, who was said to be the driver of the car, was still behind the wheel while the other two men had been placed in an ambulance.
Singh and her child were rushed to the hospital with a police escort and were admitted immediately to Accident and Emergency. However, the child was pronounced dead on arrival while Singh was taken into surgery, a hospital source said. The three-year-old was said to have been shot four times.
Back at the scene of the attack meanwhile, relatives of Jupiter who were among the crowd could be heard wailing loudly when they recognised his body in the car. One weeping woman, who identified herself as Natasha, said that she was his wife. She had broken through the police cordon and run to the vehicle, and later said that her husband’s jewellery was missing.
A resident of the area told this newspaper that shortly before the shooting began he was looking through his window. He had seen a vehicle parked on the University of Guyana back road, and another on the road which runs parallel to it in the New Scheme, a corner before Second Field. “Like they waiting fuh he come out,” the witness said. When Jupiter’s white Toyota reached the corner of Second Field, the vehicle on the back road crossed the bridge to join the other one, and together they drove up to meet Jupiter’s car.
A person or persons then came out of the vehicle and riddled Jupiter’s car with bullets. The resident said that he could not ascertain how many persons emerged from the car or if they came out of both cars, since he was not looking out at that point. He estimated that between 50 to 70 shots were fired.
A police source told this newspaper that one dark coloured car had been seen leaving the scene heading towards the East Coast Line Top.
The area where the shooting took place is very dark and is usually desolate at nights. Somebody close to Jupiter told Stabroek News last evening that it was a route he would usually take.
Meanwhile, the ambulance which brought the bodies of the three men to the hospital was mobbed by grieving relatives the minute it came to a halt. Scores of person shook the vehicle as they tried to get a glimpse of the dead persons inside.
The uncontrolled crowed did not respond to calls to stay back until a police officer raised his gun in the air as if to shoot. However, when they realised that the officer was not going to fire, they again swarmed around the vehicle. Piercing cries could be heard as the bodies were moved from the ambulance into Accident and Emergency.
Relatives at the hospital could be heard lamenting, “He own friend call he out…Steve gone, Steve gone… he went sit down eating ya know…”
The doors to the A&E had to be closed and guards placed there because relatives were swarming into the area. Some members of the crowd had to be put out of the hospital compound eventually.
Inside the hospital Singh’s mother said that Singh and Jupiter had been together for five years. Last night, she said that Jupiter had picked up her daughter from her Independence Boulevard home to take her to a cousin in Cummings Lodge, “Then I get a call from she saying, “Ow mommy, ow mommy, we get shoot up.”
“What justice me gun get?” the woman asked last night close to tears.
Jupiter was described only as a businessman who was said to have had “five child mother” all of whom turned up at the hospital last night.
When this newspaper visited the man’s Industry home, a family friend named Christie said that relatives were too distraught to speak to Stabroek News. She added that as far as she knew he never had any problem with anyone. He is said to have lived with his wife in Industry and at the time of the incident, he, his son and the son’s mother were “going somewhere.”
Christie stated Jupiter’s step-daughter had called them at home to inform them of the shooting. They did not get an opportunity to see any of the bodies but were told that the child’s mother, Singh, had been shot five times. The wife, according to Christie, “is trying to keep it together.”
When Stabroek News re-visited the scene more than an hour after the incident the police were still there and subsequently could be seen patrolling the area.
It was not clear up to press time who the other two men with Jupiter were, but they were said to be friends of his. (Tiffny Rhodius with additional reporting by Zoisa Fraser)
