A Sophia resident was shot in his chest after armed bandits broke into his home and woke him out of his bed early yesterday morning.
Patrick Nurse, 54, of ‘C’ Field Sophia, is now a patient of the Georgetown Hospital where he is receiving treatment for a gunshot wound to his chest.
He is currently listed as being in a stable condition but the bullet has not been removed. He said doctors told him the bullet was close to his lungs and they will have to continue to monitor his condition.
Police said in a press release that Nurse was awakened by noise in his home around 02:30 hrs and on checking was confronted by two men, one of whom had a firearm. Nurse raised an alarm by shouting for assistance during which he was shot.
The men then took away three laptop computers and $50,000 and escaped, the release added.
From his hospital bed, Nurse said he was sleeping with his wife in their home when he was awakened by a man standing at his bedside pointing a gun to his head. He said the man was dressed in dark clothing so he thought it was a policeman, but then realised it was a thief.
He said that as he slowly rose from his bed, he noticed another man behind the first man and he decided to raise an alarm by making noise because he knows that noise creates confusion.
Nurse said the men tried to get him to remain silent and it was during this process that he was shot.
The men then gun butted him to his head and ran away. Three computers, a camera and a telephone were the items he immediately noticed were missing.
Nurse’s wife who was asleep next to him woke up during the commotion but was too shocked to do anything.
He also said that it was only after he was shot that he noticed that his house was ransacked, adding that the thieves would have done this before waking him up.
He figured the bandits woke him after they could not find the money they were looking for.
Noting that the men had gained entry through a window, Nurse suggested that the bandits had to be known to his dogs because they did not make any noise when the thieves came.
He also said that he had repaired a street light in front of his home earlier in the day but the light went off soon after.
He said while he had not attached any importance to it at the time, he has since surmised that the thieves may have taken the light off to decrease their visibility.
