— Dr O’Toole urges police

SOME 18 months after Nations’ Principal, Dr Brian O’Toole, survived an execution attempt by a boy in the dead of night as he was about to enter his home, police are yet to make any headway in the case even as the academic appeals for justice to be served.

Dr O’Toole told the Guyana Chronicle that, from all appearances, the police seem to have closed the case, but he would want to see them revisit the matter and individuals, who have been clearly identified on repeated occasions, interviewed with the aim of prosecution.

On January 27, 2019, Dr O’Toole, a UK-trained psychologist, who has been living in Guyana for 42 years peacefully, had a near-death experience, when a boy ambushed and shot him three times at point blank range in the yard of his Bel Air home.

Prior to the shooting, a student was expelled from the New Market Street school after issuing a terrorist threat to students in a WhatsApp message, that had caused great unease among parents and the wider school community.

On the very day of the threat, Dr O’Toole met with scores of concerned parents and assured them that systems will be put in place to ensure students’ and teachers’ safety in a bid to allay their fears.

Following the meeting, the veteran educator drove to the Marriott where he spent a few hours over dinner and conversation with friends, including a scholar from the University of Bedfordshire, who was on a visit to Guyana. The night was going well until the Nations’ principal left the Marriott.

He drove home, entered his yard and locked the gate. It was around 21:30hrs and as he was about to enter his home, the unthinkable happened.

“A young man, thin in size, brandishing a gun appeared from nowhere. He came to within about five feet of me and without warning or utterance, began to fire at me. His hand was trembling. He jumped in the air and his gun was pointed down. I thought it was a prank. It was bizarre. It looks like someone trying to do something he saw in an action movie,” Dr O’ Toole told this publication in an interview on February 3, 2019.

STILL PARALYZED

On Saturday, the Nations’ principal told the Guyana Chronicle that since the shooting, he underwent seven operations but his left hand is still paralyzed and pains continuously.

“18 months ago, we expelled a boy at Nations for selling drugs in six schools. He did not deny the allegation, nor did his father who, incidentally, had only recently pleaded with us to accept the boy, following his expulsion from another school. Yes – very bad decision on my part.

“A group of well-meaning, but poorly-informed, students took up the defence of the boy who was expelled. A far, far more militant approach however was adopted by a boy who has been based in Florida for more than a decade who blazed social media saying he would blow up the school. Hundreds and hundreds of persons in Guyana know the identity of this boy. I provided all information on this boy to the police two days after the shooting. Four hours after this evil post more than 400 parents gathered for a meeting at the school to see how to respond. A further four hours later a boy came to our home to shoot me,” Dr O’Toole related.

According to Dr O’Toole, two days after the shooting, police visited him at a City hospital where he was admitted and he informed them of his idea who the shooter was.

When he was discharged, he later met with then Police Commissioner, Leslie James, and related to the Guyana Chronicle that he again identified the person who he thought was the shooter.

Commissioner James, he said, produced the departure card of the boy suggesting the boy was out of the country at the time of the shooting but Dr O’ Toole said persons told him that they had seen the same boy in Guyana at the time of the shooting.

“As soon as I saw the form, I told the Police Commissioner that this was not written by the student – we have copies of his handwriting at our school. The Police Commissioner therefore promised to provide proof from Canada that the boy was indeed out of the country at the time – he never provided that proof. It is entirely possible that I am incorrect about the identity of the shooter – however my ‘story’ to the police has never changed in this respect. Following the shooting the Florida boy – whose identity was shared with the police – begged for protection on social media in return he would share ‘what he knew,’” the Nations Principal related.

SELLING OF ECSTASY

He said that a few months after the shooting, a student came to him and informed him that his alleged shooter was still selling ecstasy in six Georgetown school. This information, Dr O’Toole said was shared with Commissioner James but soon after the student received a call from his alleged shooter, threating to take out one of her family members. Subsequently, the mother of the student called and informed him that she will deny her daughter made any report to him.

Sadly also, he said, the head of a leading school visited him in hospital just after the shooting and said to him that he would turn a blind eye on drugs in his school as he had no appetite for getting shot.

“At about this time also the mother of a student gave me a secret recording taken from a dark media site. In the recording the boy from Florida who threatened to blow up the school is heard clearly saying, “Ain’t it cool that the man that shot the man did the dance– how cool is that’ he then starts to laugh uncontrollably. The recording was given to the Police Commissioner and, because the boy is based in Florida, it was hand delivered to the American Ambassador in Guyana. There was no response from the former PC. The American Ambassador invited me to the Embassy to meet with the Deputy Head of Mission and the Head of Security. Three times in that meeting they informed me, ‘This is a Guyanese matter not an American matter.’ I was astonished by this and asked if the threat had been made against an American operation in Guyana would they still say that,” he said.

Dr O’Toole, who has received national awards from the Guyana and UK governments for his outstanding work in education, said he has no appetite for revenge against the “sad little boy” who presumably was pressurized by others to try and kill him.

“Indeed, if the law allows, I would ask them to drop the ‘charges’ if it gave the opportunity to meet him and understand the forces that moved him to do what he did and to live with that on his conscience,” the Nations Principal said.