The suspect in the Number 69 Village shooting was released on $50,000 bail although he was positively identified, while the injured teen awaits a surgery that the public hospital is unable to perform.
Gurdial Ballram told Stabroek News yesterday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), that he was not even informed by the police, that the man suspected to be his son’s—Oumesh Ballram—shooter, was released on bail. He said it was a surprise. “I was busy looking after my son at the hospital,” he explained. “So I didn’t have the time to keep in touch with the police.”
Ballram said doctors at the public hospital have informed him that they are unable to perform the surgery his son needs. He said he has since contacted the Ministry of Health for assistance. However, he said, if they take too long, he will have to find some other means to ensure that his son, who has been entered for 12 subjects at this year’s May/June CSEC examinations, gets the surgery he needs. His son may be flown to Miami in the United States of America or France, where they have relatives. Right now, Ballram said, travel documents are being processed through the Health Ministry.
On Thursday last, the Ballram family experienced a blackout that they will never forget. Sixteen-year-old Oumesh Ballram was shot under his right chest, after a gunman entered their home through the verandah and fired a single shot at him. Ballram, the teen’s father, told Stabroek News that the incident occurred at approximately 8 pm, just after power had been restored. He explained that he had gone downstairs to turn off the generator they had been using during the blackout, after instructing his son to turn on the main switch simultaneously. It was then that the teen was shot.
Ballram said he believed the gunman must have thought it was him, since he owns a licensed firearm. An alarm was raised and the gunman fled while the teen was taken to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, and later referred to the GPH.
A minibus load of students from Oumesh’s school travelled from Berbice yesterday to visit him at the High Dependency Unit, where he is a patient.
