The two sisters who were shot on Wednesday evening during a domestic dispute in Quamina Street in the city remained in critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday as the police continued to hunt for the assailant.
Sharon Taylor, 30, and her 19-year old sibling Michelle Richards are patients of the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the medical institution. Relatives said the two young women showed signs of improvement as the day progressed.
A relative told Stabroek News at the GPH yesterday afternoon that three bullets had been removed from Sharon Taylor’s abdomen and another x-ray was expected to be performed on her to determine the location of additional bullets which medical staff suspect are in her body. She said that the police told the family that the woman may have sustained as many as 6 gunshot wounds based on the type of weapon used. The woman’s husband, the alleged assailant, 34-year-old Malvin Taylor, is a licenced firearm holder.
The relative said Richards’ left eye was badly damaged, but contrary to what was reported earlier, she had not lost vision in the eye. The bullet passed though the left side of her face, under the left eye and exited via the right side, close to her nose. Extensive surgery is expected to be performed on the injured eye as well as her face, the relative said.
Yesterday both women were able to speak with their relatives and friends and their siblings expressed hope that they would continue to improve within the next few days.
According to the women’s relatives, Wednesday evening’s incident was the “boiling point” of a series of events which the Taylors had been “dealing with” over the past several months. One of the injured women’s sisters told Stabroek News that over the past two years, Sharon Taylor’s husband began to accuse her of infidelity and he would physically abuse her from time to time. The man, a former presidential guard, resigned from the position several years ago, a police source said yesterday.
A sibling said Sharon often complained to them about her husband’s aggressive behaviour and recently, out of fear, she decided to temporarily move in with relatives on the West Coast Demerara leaving her children in the care of her mother-in-law.
She said that some three weeks ago, the man confronted his wife about several males whom he believed she was “having an affair with” and he began to threaten her with his gun. A few days later, the man took his wife to his father’s residence at Queenstown in the city to have a discussion on the fate of their marriage. She said the man asked his father to leave the house so that he could talk to his wife and according to her, Sharon, at this point became fearful. She said her sister related that the man placed a gun to her head, “and start question she about who and who she seeing” and according to her, he physically assaulted her in the process.
She said that during the ordeal, Sharon bolted through a window at the side of the house and broke her left instep in the process. The man also jumped behind her with his gun trained in her direction.
She said a security guard next door called the police and Malvin Taylor was subsequently placed before the court. He was granted bail on a charge of assaulting his wife. That was two weeks ago, the sister said, at which point Sharon decided to move in with her relatives at Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara.
She said that two days after, three men showed at the Anna Catherina home, “to talk to Sharon” but she was not at home at the time and according to the sibling, “we start to get fearful of what might happen next”.
Recounting Wednesday evening’s incident, one of Sharon’s relatives who witnessed the incident, said the woman, her sister and a niece travelled from Anna Catherina and met Malvin Taylor at the Demico car park. She said they then travelled to a location in South Georgetown and later proceeded to her Lot 51 ‘D’ Field, Turkeyen home, “so that Sharon could see her three children”.
She said they left the area some time after 8 that night and proceeded to Quamina Street where the family encountered a young man who she described as a family friend. She said everyone exited the car at that point, except the Taylors’ four and nine-year-old children.
She said Malvin Taylor was talking to the male family friend and the conversation became heated as Taylor accused the man of having an affair with his wife. “Michelle then look in the car and see a gun and a Rambo knife under the seat and call out wah it doing there,” the relative said and at that point , Malvin Taylor grabbed the gun from under the driver seat of his Toyota Allion car. She alleged that he first fired several shots at the male family friend but the young man managed to run away from the scene without being hit.
“In a passion”, she said, he then turned in the direction of his wife. …She try fo hide at the side of the car… she could not run because only last week she had a surgery for the left foot.” She said the man looked over the car and fired several shots at the hapless woman before turning the gun on Richards, shooting her in the face. She said the man’s teenage daughter tried to drive the car away from the scene but her father shoved her out of the vehicle and drove away.
The two injured sisters were later rushed to the GPH.
Relatives of the suspect told Stabroek News that the man had contacted them early yesterday morning and had wept during a conversation with his mother. They said subsequent attempts to contact him were futile.
The injured women’s siblings met several welfare officers attached to the Human Services Ministry yesterday.
According to the police an investigation has been launched into the incident. The man remained at large up to press time last night.
