A 46-year-old New York-based man was shot to his chest at Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara just after 8 pm on Wednesday and is now a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Otis James, a metropolitan bus driver for New York City had only arrived in the country the day before he was shot to the left side of his chest at point-blank range.
The bullet exited through the right shoulder, leaving a gaping wound.
A brother-in-law, Dwayne Cameron said James had stopped in for a casual visit at his home. While “gaffing” he mentioned that someone was coming to pick him up.
Shortly after, he received a call on his cell phone and heard a car blowing. After James went out and locked the gate Cameron said he heard a loud sound, “pow!” as if a “tyre explode.”
Just then he heard the man’s nephew using expletives and shouting “…Otis don’t deserve this.”
He rushed to the scene and saw the injured man lying on the ground.
“The first thing he said was, ‘take me to the best hospital [in the country]’ and to ‘call the American Embassy’”.
Just then, a taxi was passing with three passengers and the driver discharged them and took the injured man to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he was treated.
He was then prepared for transfer to the GPHC but no ambulance was available at the time to take him. Relatives said they had to wait about one hour for the ambulance to return from GPHC where it had gone with another patient.
They were angry that when they got to the emergency unit of the GPHC he was not attended to immediately. “Only when he started frothing from the mouth then they look after him,” a relative said.
Another man, Chris, who also said he was a brother-in-law, told this newspaper that James returned to Guyana last year, the first time after 30 years, for his mother’s funeral. He also said he wanted to stay connected to the family and was planning to hold a party for everyone.
His father told this newspaper that he received a call from his daughter-in-law, Onica (James’ wife) and the call was disconnected.He called her back and it was then she gave him the news that his son had been shot.
