A 31-year-old soldier is nursing a stab wound to the right side of his stomach and gashes to the head after he was attacked by an ex-soldier at a football match on Friday evening last at the National Cultural Centre tarmac.
Mark Pierre, of James Street, Albouystown, was yesterday transferred from the High Dependency Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital to the Male Surgical Ward. However, the man said he is still in a lot of pain.
When Stabroek News visited the injured man, he recalled being at the ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ football match when a female friend asked him to accompany her to the washroom. He explained that after following her, he decided to use the facility as well and it was as he exited the portable toilet that he felt someone huddle him from behind.
“He come from behind me and stab me to my right side ribs and cut me up to the right side of my head,” Pierre said as he displayed his wounds which were stitched.
The man said his assailant escaped immediately after the incident but he was made to understand that a friend of the attacker was captured by the police. Stabroek News was unable to confirm this with police officials.
Pierre said he had met the man in the Guyana Defence Force but explained that the perpetrator had subsequently left the army. He said he was never too friendly with the man but they were acquaintances.
When asked about a motive, Pierre said he was clueless as he never had a feud with the suspect.
He added that the attack came while gunshots were heard in the area.
According to reports, a rural constable, who has since been taken into custody, opened fire that same evening at the NCC tarmac.
Police said that Oriley Small sustained gunshot wounds to his face, chest and right leg. Two other persons—Small’s friend, 32-year-old Lawrence Wayne and plantain chip vendor Shondell Benn, 33—each sustained a gunshot wound in the attack as well. Wayne sustained a wound to his abdomen, while Benn was shot to her left arm; the bullet exited the woman’s hand.
