Mystery and suspicion surround the circumstances under which two young men, residents of Bachelor's Adventure East Coast Demerara (ECD), were shot -- one fatally -- early yesterday morning. The police are investigating.

Dead is 17-year-old, Gavin Sobers, who was shot in the forehead, while his fellow villager, Melroy Goodman, 26, received several gunshot wounds about the body while escaping his Church Road home.

A police press release issued yesterday afternoon said that Goodman had told the police that he and Sobers were at his home at around 2:30 am yesterday, when a person or persons unknown threw a channa bomb into the house and fired gunshots, hitting him in the abdomen. The police said Goodman jumped through a window and fled to relatives who took him to the Vigilance Police Station, where he made a report.

The police visited the scene where they discovered Sobers' body in the doorway with gunshot injuries and recovered spent shells. Goodman was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he is in a critical condition. The police said that members of the Crime Scenes Unit and tracker dog were dispatched to the scene.



The Church Road, Bachelor's Adventure cottage where yesterday morning's shooting was said to have taken place. (Photo by Aubrey Crawford)

Residents who were on the scene yesterday reported that Sobers was shot in his forehead at the doorway of the Goodmans' home, possibly as he opened the door to escape after the channa bomb had been thrown into the home. Burnt channa and broken glass were evident at the scene yesterday.

Goodman, after being shot, they said, ran approximately half a mile along a mud dam to the home of relatives. He underwent emergency surgery yesterday morning at the hospital , and was later a patient of the Intensive Care Unit.

Many angry residents who gathered at various locations in the village, including on the Embankment Roadway speculated as to the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, father of the deceased, Dereck Sobers was unable to provide any possible reason for his son's death.

He said that he had last seen Gavin shortly before 7:00 pm on Friday. At that time, he had indicated to the young footballer that he should go to meet his mother when she completed work at around 8:00 pm at the Melanie Nursery School. But Gavin passed this responsibility on to his younger brother and headed to the pool hall located on Church Road.

According to reports, Gavin Sobers and Goodman had left the pool hall some time after midnight and might have been caught in a heavy shower of rain. Villagers speculated that Sobers would have sought shelter from the rain at Goodman's house, since it was close to the pool hall.

Yesterday morning, Sobers said, a fellow villager went to their home with the news of the shooting and he immediately went to the scene where he saw the body of his son.

According to the father, a former army officer with ballistics training, his son appeared to have been shot with a handgun at close range since there were visible burn marks where the bullet entered the forehead.

Goodman's mother who was at work at Barama Plywood Factory, Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara at the time of the incident, told this newspaper that she got a message that there was a shooting at her home and she should go to the hospital.

When the mother of two arrived at the institution she saw her sister in a corridor and was informed of the situation. She proceeded to her home where she saw blood near her front door and on her carpet. She refused to speculate as to the circumstances surrounding the shooting. According to the woman, her son told his sister that he did not know who had shot him and Sobers.

By the time this newspaper arrived on the scene the blood which was said to have covered the entrance to the small cottage had been washed away, but not before the police had cleared the area of all necessary physical evidence. Villagers said that the police had cordoned off the area and extensively searched the home as part of their investigations into the shooting.

Gavin Sobers, a keen footballer who played in the ECD Under-18 League, according to his father, was supposed to be involved in a game yesterday. He was described as having had a quiet personality and always willing to assist in chores when called upon.

According to the senior Sobers, there was not a dry eye in the village when word got around yesterday morning that he had been shot. Other persons who had gathered at the home yesterday lamented the lad's unfortunate death while examining several possible theories that might have caused it.