AT approximately 11:00 hrs yesterday, 58-year-old shop keeper Lex Carpen of Little Abary, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara was sitting in his motor vehicle at the corner of Charlotte Street and Avenue of the Republic, just outside the High Court building in Georgetown, when two men on a CG motorcycle drove up alongside him. One of the men was armed with a firearm, and he grabbed Carpen’s pouch containing $217,000 before discharging a round that hit Carpen in the left knee. That bullet exited Carpen’s knee and struck 31-year-old passerby Cherilee Cosbert in her left foot just below the knee.

Cosbert said she and a friend had just left the premises of the Deeds Registry in the High Court compound when she was shot. Carpen said he had left a city commercial bank a short while before the incident, and he was of the view that he had unknowingly been trailed by someone ever since leaving the bank. He said that although he had drawn his licensed weapon, he was hesitant to shoot because he was concerned for the safety of passersby; but the bandits did not feel that way, and shot at him indiscriminately, in the process hitting the passing woman.

The two wounded persons were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), where both were treated and sent away.
 
Police investigations are continuing.