A bodyguard of Ricardo Rodrigues died this afternoon after he was shot several times as he reversed out of a yard in Laluni Street, Queenstown by gunmen who were in two cars.
Police this afternoon said a “man has been arrested and is in police custody assisting with the investigations.”
Marlon Osbourne also called ‘Trini’, 33, was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he died while undergoing treatment. Hospital sources said he was shot in his chest and upper thigh. An 11-year-old girl who attends the Josel’s School, a privately run Seventh-day Adventist school, was grazed in her back by a fragments of bullet that entered the upper flat of the two-storey school. The shooting created pandemonium among the children.
Security sources say the execution-style attack is clear evidence of fallout from the events surrounding the murder of Rodrigues earlier this month. A Canadian who was injured in the attack on Rodrigues also died mysteriously in the Georgetown Hospital last Friday.
According to information received by this newspaper, Osbourne, who was driving a grey car, was reversing out of a yard on Laluni Street when he came under sustained gunfire from occupants of two cars. He remained slumped in his car until he was rushed to the hospital by persons. When Stabroek News arrived on the scene the car was partly parked on a bridge and on Laluni Street and damage was seen to the front windscreen. Police had cordoned off the area and were conducting investigation.
Over at the school, which is located on the corner of Laluni and Peter Rose streets, there was loud crying from terrified children while frantic parents were rushing to the premises to pick up their children. Pastor Stanton Adams, whose daughter was injured, said she was not seriously hurt but is terrified.
Headmaster of the school, Will Campbell told Stabroek News that they were having a staff meeting when loud gunshots rang out and they quickly told the children to drop to the floor. He said they hurried some children who were in the yard into the building. He said the children are very terrified and the school administration would have to arrange counselling sessions for them.
At the hospital, relatives of Osbourne were very hostile and demanded that media operatives put away cameras. One man attempted to take away this reporter’s phone.
“Step back, no camera,” the man shouted as he attempted to snatch the phone and another put his hand in this reporter’s face.
Critics have said police made no effort to track down Rodrigues’ killers. It is believed that the same people are behind the attack on Osbourne.
The Georgetown Public Hospital this afternoon said that the victim “sustained gunshot wounds to the right side of his abdomen, back and scrotal area. He succumbed while undergoing emergency surgery at the Main Operating Theatre. He was pronounced dead at 14:55h, October 31, 2012.”
