– Woman shot during police chase discharged from hospital

By Rabindra Rooplall

RELATIVES of a Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara (WCD) woman are calling on the Commissioner of Police to ensure that a thorough investigation is done into her shooting at the Timehri bus park Tuesday.Jean Rodrigues, 54, of Crane Housing Scheme, WCD was shot in her lower back after being caught in the firing line between police and suspected thieves. The mother of 10 was discharged Wednesday from the Georgetown Public Hospital in a stable condition.

Police revealed that the woman was shot by a bandit who was being chased by ranks in the area. The mother of the 18-year-old suspect turned him over to police yesterday and he has since denied that he was in possession of a firearm. However, the police officer who fired his weapon during the chase is under investigation.

My son is not a criminal
The mother of the teen, Linda Kim Forde told the media that her son was heading into a bus when a police officer pulled out his gun and shot in the air.

“My son started to run, when (the police) see my son running down Parliament Building, back there, he don’t know what the boy running for… and he open fire behind my son and end up hitting a woman sitting on a bench,” she explained.

The visibly upset woman further noted, “And they say meh son is a criminal and a thief, and how he snatch some chain and he had some bag, but they never expect that the child they shoot behind mother would have turned him in to police.”

In expressing her disappointment with the actions of the police, Forde proudly displayed her son’s trophies and certificates from school stating “the police force got to stop this thing, I want the President to look into this and the Commissioner of Police, [my son] is not no bandit, they should stop covering up for their matti police.”

She explained that her son attends Chase Academy and is a football player who has earned several awards.

Meanwhile, the injured woman’s daughter revealed that her mother was discharged at 06:00hrs Wednesday without any proper medication or dressing on the wound she received as a result of the gunshot.

“When my father said she get discharged, I said ok maybe everything is ok and she was looked after, but when we realise the situation we come at Brickdam Police Station and they said an investigation is being done,” she explained.

Anthony Persaud, a relative and eyewitness who was at the scene at the time of the shooting said he was showing his grandson two rats that were scurrying around the bus park when he heard two loud explosions that sounded like gunshots. This he said was heard before an unarmed man ran past the injured woman.

“Then I heard her [Jean Rodrigues] daughter said she get shoot and we see her bleeding at her lower back, we hold her up and carry her to a taxi, we went to the hospital and is until midnight they admitted her to the hospital,” he explained.

Persaud said he was told by the police that the bullet grazed a bench before hitting Rodrigues. Relatives agreed that such actions in public cannot be condoned and whoever is guilty should be brought to justice.