TRAVIS Rudder, 26, of Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara was killed in his bed early yesterday morning after a gunman pumped 18 bullets into his body through a bedroom window of his home.
His girlfriend, 31-year-old Mawanza Gill, originally of 149 Regent Street, but residing at the Nandy Park address for several years now, was shot seven times, with four bullets hitting her in one leg and another three the other.Injured in the shooting also and listed as serious last evening was the couple’s eighteen-month-old baby Travis Rudder, Jnr. who took five bullets about his body and was in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital while his mother was in the Female Surgical Ward.

The Guyana Chronicle was informed that the gunman went to the home, which is owned by the dead man’s mother, and used an old walker in a wheelbarrow to gain access to the bedroom window from which he launched his deadly attack on the three occupants asleep in the room.
The incident occurred around 01:30hrs yesterday and according to information received, the shooting lasted for about 20 to 30 minutes.
The house that the victims occupied is a flat building which is elevated about four feet off the ground. The three were asleep in the western half of the building when the attack occurred. There are two bedrooms located on the western side of the house, but the gunman apparently knew the exact room that was occupied by the man and his family.
Police investigators are of the view that Rudder was the intended target, given the number of shots which concentrated on him. The police have since recovered 24 9mm spent shells from the scene.
When this publication visited the home where the incident occurred, no one was there. And the window which leads to the room occupied by the victims was barred up with boards, as broken louvre panes were seen lying around.

It was also observed that the wheelbarrow and the old walker used by the gunman to mount himself to the level of the window were still at the location.
Speaking with this newspaper from her hospital bed yesterday afternoon, Mawanza Gill explained that they were asleep when they were awakened by loud explosions which later proved to be gunshots.
She said that by the time she realised what was going on, the father of her child was being riddled with bullets, then she and her child were also hit.
“I did not see anything or anyone; they just came by the window and start shooting me, my child-father and my baby,” the woman recalled.

She said that the ordeal lasted for approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The woman said that she cannot point any fingers with respect to who carried out the crime. Asked if she thought that it might have been someone very familiar with the home, given that they knew which window to launch the attack from, the woman said that she could not tell.
Mawanza Gill confirmed that she has been seeing Rudder for the past five years. She said that her mother-in-law was in another room sleeping when the incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the toddler is said to have lost a lot of blood but the doctors were working around-the-clock yesterday to save his life.
The name Travis Rudder appeared in the news back in 2007 when he was just 17 and accused of shooting to daeth his then girlfriend, 14-year-old Donnis King of Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara.
The man was, however, found not guilty of manslaughter or murder by a jury presided over by Justice Dawn Gregory in 2011 when the judgment was handed down.
Back in 2011, the court was told by the defence attorney that the accused and the young lady were at home, and that he was playing with his .38 revolver when it accidently went off. The court was also told that the young man never intended to injure the woman, since he had no reason to do so.
The prosecution, however, had stated that the man and the woman were having an argument over infidelity when he shot her.
By Leroy Smith