A 14-year-old boy died yesterday after he was shot by a stray bullet near his home at Vive la Force, West Bank Demerara and the community said his death may have been avoided if police had acted on numerous reports of reckless shooting into the area from boats on the Demerara River.
The teen, Ryan Persaud, died while being given emergency care at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), where his parents and pastor rushed him after he was shot in the left region of his back, just below his shoulder blade. “He was catching bird and he put the sling shot over his shoulder and tell we he coming to catch shrimp… then he run over shouting, ‘a yuh come see something sting meh in meh back.’ But he collapsed before we meet to he and start bleeding from he mouth,” his friend, Feroze Hussein, recounted to Stabroek News.
Residents of the area blasted the Wales Police Station, saying that over the past two years they have made numerous complaints that periodically there would be rapid gunfire coming from boats that are either passing or moored at the back of the village on the Demerara River. They said it seems that the vessels belong to businessmen who