Police are finding it difficult to make a case against former Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys, after the Western Tigers midfielder whom he allegedly shot last week changed his story, saying that he doesn’t know who pulled the trigger.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday that Gilhuys was sent on station bail and that the matter was still being investigated.
He said that a file had not yet been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions but eventually one will be.
According to Persaud, victim Dwayne Ali “is saying that he doesn’t know who shot him.” Another senior police official told this newspaper yesterday that Ali “has now changed his story, saying that he and Gilhuys ain’t got no story.”
Asked about the direction of the case, the official said that Ali is a vital part of the investigation and his now saying that he does know the identity of the shooter would make investigators’ work harder.
Stabroek News tried unsuccessfully to reach Ali, 31, who has since been discharged from the Georgetown Hospital. Ali sustained a gunshot wound to the left leg last Friday night.
Meanwhile, when contacted Western Tigers’ Secretary Dexter Cush pointed out that nobody was shot. “Yes, he [Ali] did sustain a gunshot wound but no gun was pointed at him,” the angry official said before abruptly terminating the call. Stabroek News had called Cush for assistance in contacting Ali.
Police had said in a press release last Saturday that they were investigating the shooting, which occurred around 2330 hours at Hibiscus Street and Mandela Avenue, Georgetown. According to police, Ali attempted to make peace “between a licensed firearm holder who is an attorney at law and another man, when he was shot.”
Ali had told this newspaper from his hospital bed that a fight had broken out between Gilhuys and another player. “I went and part them and I feel something stinging,” he recounted. He added that he was not aware of the circumstances under which the gun went off. The team, he had explained, was returning from a game in Linden when the incident occurred.
Gilhuys had told this newspaper at the East Ruimveldt Police Outpost, where he had gone to turn himself in, that the shooting was “a lil accident.” He then explained that since he was a licensed firearm holder, he was at the station to lodge his weapon and give a statement on what had occurred.
Gilhuys on Sunday resigned as President of the Western Tigers Football Club but did not state a reason in his letter.
