Former Police Commissioner and APNU MP Winston Felix says he has heard that the shot fired at Congress Place during the chaotic voting at the PNCR’s 18th Biennial Congress on Sunday might have been in an effort to save a woman from being stampeded.
Felix has been appointed head of the investigation into the shooting and though he said there have been no findings he is in the process of verifying accounts given what transpired. One such account is that the shot heard on Sunday was discharged in an effort to prevent a stampeding mob from crushing a woman who had fallen among the confusion.
Where the shooter is concerned though, Felix says the person’s identity has not yet been confirmed even though a photograph of the likely person has been published in the press.
Stabroek News managed to obtain a photograph of the man said to be responsible. In the photo, the man is holding a drawn gun. Sources have identified him as Linden Primo. A photo of Primo was shown to returned party leader David Granger during a press conference on Sunday night and Granger said the man might have been part of returning officer Michael Sommersall’s team. Sommersall was contacted via telephone by a Stabroek News reporter yesterday but he declined to give a comment on the matter unless he could visually verify who he was speaking to. Felix says he has been told that a woman fell to the ground as a mob charged the auditorium in which the voting was taking place. He says he heard that the woman was being trampled in the confusion. The gunman is said to have discharged his weapon in the air in an effort to force the mob to clear the area. Felix was told that the tactic worked and that the woman was able to walk away from the incident.
He says the woman is said to be one of the Lindeners who was hurt in the 2012 protests. He told Stabroek News that he is looking for footage of what transpired to ascertain the validity of what he was told. He is also in the process of speaking to persons who would have witnessed the incident. Felix also confirmed that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has become involved in the matter, although he does not know of their findings thus far, if any. The former top cop says he spoke to an officer of the Force on Monday morning and that they were supposed to meet but couldn’t due to busy schedules on both sides. If any sanctions will be laid at the end of the investigations it will be up to the Force to do so, Felix clarified.
Asked why a man was allowed to enter the party grounds with a weapon on Sunday Felix said that the security firm hired to provide such services was not mandated to check persons for weapons. He said it is expected that persons licensed to carry firearm licences would act responsibly. Investi-gations, on both fronts, are ongoing. None of the party’s executive members claim to know the details of the shooting as they were in a meeting away from the auditorium when the shooting occurred.
Region 10 Chairman Sharma Solomon has said that whoever was responsible for the shooting must be dealt with accordingly, as opposed to protected.
