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Fergus told this newspaper that the former footballer was backing the gate while holding his toddler niece, and he was facing the road but had his head down when they suddenly heard someone say, “The three of y’all come now!”
Fergus said that at first he thought the men were police ranks, since they were dressed in black. One of the men then scaled the verandah, and upon seeing him, Grimes ran. The gunman ran behind Grimes, and when they reached into the home a scuffle ensued between the two. Another of the three gunmen then scaled the verandah also, and proceeded to take Fergus and Grimes’s wife into the home.
As they entered the house, the gunman realized that Kevin Grimes and the other gunman were scuffling on the floor, and he rushed to the rescue of his accomplice, firing several shots in the process. Fergus said he then used that opportunity to exit the back door and make his way through a nearby alleyway. However, he had earlier been unable to prevent one of the bandits from snatching his gold chain from around his neck.
Enid Grimes, mother of the former footballer and wife of the shot George Grimes, said she was sitting in her living room watching television while her now hospitalized husband was sitting at the dining table when she saw her son running inside the home. She said she initially thought the man and his wife were playing, until she noticed a strange man pursuing her son with a gun in hand. She said her son then began to fight with the man, and before she knew it, shots were fired.
There were three shots fired, she recalled. She could not recall the circumstances under which her daughter-in-law, Ruth Grimes, was shot, but she confirmed that her husband was shot in the head and her daughter-in-law in the abdomen.
According to the senior Mrs. Grimes, after her husband saw her son struggling with the gunman, he realized that it was no joke and that the person he was struggling with was not a policeman. She recalled that her husband got up from where he was sitting and went to wrestle with the bandit, and was shot in the process. After receiving the bullet to his head, she heard her husband say, “Oh God I dead!” However, up to press time last evening, while Ruth Grimes was allegedly in more critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital, both she and Mr. Grimes were alert and were able to speak.
Doctors were operating on the injured Grimes, and they were sent for X-rays to see where exactly the respective bullets were lodged, and if any vital internal part was under threat.
Last evening, family members and friends quickly gathered at the hospital and home to offer words of comfort to the family. There were several children in the home at time the shooting and invasion occurred.
The younger Grimes had recently given up playing football after he had announced that he was making himself more available to his family. And he had even said that he wanted to focus on family and juggling the sport, and doing such would have been a challenge.
Persons in the community, and even those at the hospital, ruled out robbery as the motive behind last evening’s shooting. They are of the view that the intended target was the former footballer, who got married not so long ago.
Despite Dexter Fergus having had his chain taken, and Mrs Ruth Grimes coming home from Canada about a week and a half ago, it is strongly believed that Kevin Grimes was the person the gunmen came for, one resident said.
The resident pointed to the initial actions of the gunmen when they arrived at the home last night, with one of them chasing right after the footballer.
When this publication visited the home last evening, the house was in a mess and blood stains were everywhere. The living room where the scuffle and beating took place was in disarray, and
there was also a knife left behind by one of the gunmen. A warhead was also seen on the floor behind a chair in the home.
After committing the act, the gunmen fled through an alleyway and made their way into Guyhoc, a resident said.
