A shop owner was shot yesterday after a scuffle between two men at his Mango Landing, Cuyuni, Essequibo River business ended in gunplay.
According to the Guyana Police Force, the victim, 68-year-old Claude Kanhai, was merely a bystander at the time of the altercation.
The shooting occurred around 6 am. At the time, police said, a 55-year-old licensed firearm-holder was at Kanhai’s shop, waiting on a cup of coffee, when a 38-year-old man entered the establishment.
The second man claimed that he went to the shop to make a phone call when he heard the other customer repeating racial slurs, which offended him. As a result, he said he confronted the man, who stood up and showed him that he had a gun.
The police said that the second customer ran out of the shop and went to his minibus, where he retrieved a cutlass. The two customers then got into an argument and the second customer alleged that the man with the gun discharged a round that struck Kanhai.
However, the police said the firearm-holder has denied the allegation and claimed that they had a scuffle and that the other man was trying to remove his gun when it went off. Kanhai raised an alarm that he was shot and that was when the scuffle ended.
The police were immediately summoned and the Kanhai was taken to the Mahdia Public Hospital. He has since been transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital for surgery. The two suspects were arrested.
