EMIL Mendez, a solider attached to the Belizean Army, sustained four gunshot wounds to his body, including to his abdomen and thigh, on Monday night during an attempted robbery in the vicinity of Stanley Place and Shell Road, Kitty, Georgetown.

The Guyana Chronicle was told that a lone gunman approached Mendez with a demand that he hand over his valuables. The soldier put up a fight in defence of his possessions, and was injured when the gunman opened fire on him. The would-be robber was not able to relieve Mendez of any of his personal items, and fled the scene after shooting him.

Mendez, who is presently in Guyana attached to a Ministry of Health orthopedic technician programme, has been staying at the Guyana Defence Force Base at Camp Ayanganna in Georgetown.

Sources indicate that he had earlier put his girlfriend in a vehicle to send her home, and was walking back to the GDF base from a Kitty nightspot when he was attacked.

Contacted yesterday morning, GDF Chief of Staff, Brigadier Mark Phillips confirmed that the solider had been shot during an attempted robbery. He told the Guyana Chronicle that the welfare arm of the GDF was scheduled to visit the injured man later in the day at a city hospital, where he has been warded.

(Leroy Smith)