Former magistrate Gordon Gilhuys has resigned with immediate effect from his position as president of the BK International Western Tigers Football club after accidentally shooting midfielder, Dwayne Ali on Friday night in the leg.
Gilhuys handed in his resignation letter to the club on Sunday, according to acting president Adepemo Peters. He told Stabroek Sport yesterday that in Gilhuys’ letter he expressed gratitude for serving the club and wished the club success in its future endeavour.
Stabroek Sport tried to reach Gilhuys yesterday but its efforts were futile.
Peters also said that Gilhuys did not give any reason for his resignation from the post. On the other hand, Peters said that the executives of the club visited the injured player, who was shot in the left leg after returning from a practice game in Linden against Milerock.
Milerock will be contesting the CONCACAF Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championships which begin on Thursday. According to Peters the club was written to by the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) for not giving it adequate notice to take the city team to play the game.
He said that the club is aware of the rules set out by the GFA but the match was hastily arranged and some of these rules were overlooked. The main factor being overlooked was the inadequate notice given by the club to the GFA, the body tasked with giving clubs in the city permission to compete with each other.
He said that there is no excuse for how the club acted and there should be no excuses while also citing that the executive regrets the subsequent shooting incident. Training will continue as normal, Peters stressed.
Meanwhile, when this newspaper spoke with president of the GFA Vernon Burnett he said that the body wrote the club outlining two issues. The two issues, according to Burnett, relate to the club conducting an investigation and producing the findings thereafter and the unauthorised playing of football by the club without the “permission and blessings” of the GFA.
He said that the shooting incident is a serious one and the GFA has already met to discuss the next step. He said that an individual or individuals or the club can be banned or suspended, dependent on the culpable party or parties.
He indicated that while clubs and players have been banned and suspended in the past, this is an extreme case and the GFA will be meeting again to discuss the matter. He also stressed that while clubs are aware of the rules of the GFA it is possible that there can also be a general council meeting, which will include all the clubs and the GFA, to determine the outcome of this matter.
It was reported by this newspaper that according to the police, the incident between Ali, 31, and Gilhuys occurred around 23.30 hours on Friday night at Hibiscus Street and Mandela Avenue.
Ali, 31, of Garnett Street, is now a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital. Ali had also told this newspaper on Saturday that a fight had broken out between Gilhuys, who is a licensed firearm holder, and another player when he “went and part them and I feel something stinging…” Ali had also stated that he was not aware of the circumstances under which the gun went off.
Ali, who has been playing with the Western Tigers for some four years now, said that he will have to wait to see whether he can play football again.
This is not the first time that the former policeman has been involved in a shooting incident. Four years ago, Gilhuys was accused of shooting a policeman in the chest on Woolford Avenue.
Thirty-three-year old Mark George of Lot 2033 Humming Bird Street, Festival City was shot while on police patrol on Friday June 27, 2008. A police release had stated that around 11.15 pm a mobile police patrol observed a heavily tinted vehicle, PJJ 6832 parked along Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.
The police ranks stopped and approached the vehicle with a view to making checks, the police said, adding that ranks called on the driver of the vehicle “to turn on the lights of the vehicle and this resulted in a verbal exchange during which it is alleged that the driver discharged rounds at the police hitting Corporal 18352 George in his abdomen.”
According to the statement the police released at the time, the police returned fire hitting the vehicle, but the driver managed to get away.
