A Charlestown man was critically wounded after gunmen opened fire on him, injuring two others in the process at a football match at the National Cultural Centre tarmac in the city last night.
Orily Small, 28, of Ketley Street, Charlestown, sustained three gunshot wounds in the attack, in which he is believed to have been the intended target. His friend, Lawrence Wayne, 32, of the Diamond Housing Scheme, on the East Bank of Demerara and a plantain chip vendor Shondell Benn, 33, of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara each sustained a gunshot wound in the attack as well.
Small was shot to the right jaw, left shoulder and right thigh, while Wayne sustained one gunshot wound to his upper body and Benn was shot to the right elbow, with the bullet exited her hand. Based on reports by persons at the scene, sometime after 10:30 pm the gunmen entered the Cultural Center tarmac, where finals of the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ exhibition tournament was being played in search of Small. Reports are that Small was standing next to a group of friends, including Wayne, when the gunmen approached and opened fire in the men’s direction. Benn who, left her home late last evening to vend at the event, was passing at the time when she was shot.
Small and Benn were rushed to the Woodlands Hospital while Lawrence was taken to the Balwant Singh Hospital on East Street. Small’s relatives gathered in large numbers at the hospital and according an aunt, the man’s injuries were severe.
Small, a burly man, lost a considerable amount of blood and was in an unconscious state at the hospital. He was taken to the operating theatre around 1 am this morning to have the bullets removed from his body.
Benn, a mother of one, was conscious and her parents noted that she was able to walk at the hospital after she was rushed there. Her mother told Stabroek News that the woman would normally frequent football events to ply her trade and according to her, last evening was no different. “She left home dead a night and now look what happen… she said she passing and selling when she just feel a sting in the hand,” the worried woman stated.
Wayne’s relatives noted that the man was in a stable condition at the private hospital last evening and they noted that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot.
Police visited the injured at the hospital last evening and are investigating the incident.
