There was some level of normality in the city yesterday following the storming of the Presidential Complex on Wednesday, but proprietors of many city stores kept their doors tightly locked. However, while the city was calm, residents of Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara yesterday dug a fresh hole on the embankment road and lit old tyres and other debris. Stabroek News observed, during a visit to the area, a group of young men standing behind huge heaps of debris and burnt tyres protesting the shooting and wounding of Nicola Prince of Bare Root during the attack on the presidential complex.
On Wednesday, a group of protesters from the East Coast led by Phillip Bynoe took to city streets and later stormed the Office of the President compound. This resulted in a man and a woman being fatally shot.
Ten persons were also injured including Prince and 17 arrested and taken into police custody. The two dead persons - Mark Crawford, reportedly from Linden and Albertha Fufe - were identified by relatives yesterday at the Newburg Funeral Parlour.
Meanwhile, Prince, 27, of Lot 1 Bare Root, ECD, who had been reported as one of the dead is in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. Prince’s mother told this newspaper yesterday that she was very disturbed that her daughter was listed as dead. She said that Prince left her home on Wednesday at around 10 am to do shopping in the city. She said this was long after the protesters left the East Coast. According to the mother, her daughter, who is also a mother of five and pregnant, had finished shopping and had visited an aunt in Lodge. She was returning to central Georgetown when the minibus she was travelling on was forced to abandon the trip on Croal Street because of the confusion at OP.
Prince’s mother said that her daughter stepped across on South Road and stood at the corner near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when she was greeted with the bullet that grazed her forehead. The woman said that she was grateful that the bullet did not lodge in her daughter’s head and continued to hope and pray yesterday for Nicola’s total recovery.
“Boy, I was there and I saw when my child got shot. Didn’t you see me rolling up on the road crying? My daughter never went into that place and she was not in the march,” the woman declared.
After the shooting, the protesters retreated from the presidential complex and began to set vehicles on fire. They also burnt two stores. One of the vehicles that was burnt belonged to the Ministry of Agriculture and was being driven by one Alvin. Another employee, a carpenter at the ministry, was in the front seat. An official at the ministry told this newspaper yesterday that the car was one of the main vehicles for the ministry since it had been used for all the day-to-day business, which included banking, purchasing and transporting of staff. The official also disclosed that on that very day five new tyres were acquired for the car and four were put on. The two occupants yesterday gave statements to the police.
While responding to the fire in the car, ranks of the Guyana Fire Service were attacked. Senior officials of GFS confirmed yesterday that a few of their ranks were chased and beaten, windows on a vehicle were shattered and one of the female ranks was taken to the GHPC. The officials said that was what caused the delay when the Payless and Fullworth’s stores were set on fire.
According to them, after the unfortunate delay they sent for backup at the Brickdam Police Station and were provided with an armed escort which took them to the scene. Many persons at the scene had complained of the GFS’ late arrival, since had they responded earlier Fullworth’s store could have been saved. However, it was evident that the firemen were fully prepared and did a good job in quelling the flames some 35 minutes into their operations.
Yesterday, many of the city stores were seen putting up grill and plywood to prevent looting and arson. According to one of the storeowners his store was already grilled but he was putting up the plywood to prevent persons from throwing firebombs into the store.
He cited what happened at Courts on Regent Street on Wednesday evening.
“Though the store was grilled the men broke the glass and threw [in a] bottle with fire, so this plywood would help prevent that,” the proprietor said. Stabroek News observed on Regent Street yesterday more than ten stores closed and the usually busy street was not as congested. Many persons who were in the city on business wasted little time in completing their errands and departing.
There were reports on Wednesday evening that some citizens were robbed at the East Coast bus park and many commuters were left stranded on the road for several hours since most of the minibuses plying Route 44 (Mahaica/ Georgetown) stopped working earlier than usual.