Two persons were shot at a Coverden, East Bank Demerara sports bar early yesterday morning, during a scuffle between a patron and a policeman who was trying to make an arrest after a disturbance at the nightspot.
Linden Samuels, 33, the customer who was involved in the scuffle with the policeman, and Odessa Glasgow, 27, a waitress at the R&V Sports Bar where the shooting occurred, are now both nursing gunshot wounds at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Police said the lawman’s gun went off during his scuffle with Samuels, of Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, who was shot in the stomach. Glasgow, of Belle Affiance, Essequibo Coast, told Stabroek News that the bullet that struck Samuels also passed through her right thigh.
In a statement on the shooting yesterday, the police said that around 1 am on Saturday, ranks responded to a report of disorderly behaviour by a number of patrons at the night spot.
During efforts to arrest one of the persons who was allegedly involved in the fracas, police said, a scuffle ensued between the man and an armed policeman. It added that during the man’s attempt to disarm the police, a round was discharged and struck him and Glasgow.
Shortly after coming out of the operating theatre, where he underwent surgery for the gunshot wound to his abdomen, Samuels told Stabroek News that he was only trying to shift the policeman’s gun, which was pointed to his head.
He said he was just attempting talk to the police who came at the night spot where he was drinking and the policeman pointed the gun to his head. The injured man, with tubes still attached to his body, said he was shifting the gun when the officer shot him.
In the female surgical ward at the GPH, Glasgow was admitted in a stable condition yesterday. She said she was working when one of the customers cursed a supervisor at the sports bar. As the man continued with his abusive language, the supervisor decided to call the police.
An armed policeman subsequently responded. Glasgow said that as the policeman was attempting to arrest the man, who was earlier loud and abusive, another man arrived and began challenging the policeman and attempted to prevent him from making the arrest.
“As the man grabbed the gun which the police was carrying, a scuffle ensued and all I hear is bla dai, the gunshot rang out,” Glasgow recalled.
The woman said that she then felt a slight pain to her leg and when she looked she saw blood oozing out from a wound.
A customer quickly picked her up and placed her and Samuels in his car and transported them to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, after which they were transferred to the GPH.
When she arrived at the GPH, an x-ray was done which showed that the bullet exited her thigh, Glasgow said. She is expected to be discharged today.
