The 17-year-old daughter of a senior policeman was shot several times on her way home on Saturday night and was up to last night in a stable but critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Shamali Smith, the second of three children for policeman Eon Smith popularly known as ‘Gangster’, was shot four times about the body by a lone gunman as she was being towed home on a bicycle along the Victoria Main Road, East Coast Demerara. The motive for the attack is unknown.
Stabroek News understands that the teen had attended a ‘Back to School’ dance at a sports ground in the village and was returning home at about 9:30 p.m. when the attack occurred.
Her relatives said as the couple was passing the burial ground, a man emerged and started shooting at the girl.
They said her partner fell from the bike and Shamali fell between his legs. The gunman escaped and a passing minibus rushed the wounded girl to the hospital.
Hospital sources said Shamali sustained one bullet to her ribs, which penetrated her spleen and one of her lungs; another bullet to the upper chest, which lodged in her spine and had to be removed surgically; and two to her right hand.
Stabroek News understands that one of the bullets that passed through the teen’s hand penetrated her left leg and caused a compound fracture.
Immediately after the shooting, scores of policemen, including several senior officers rushed to the hospital and tried to console a livid Eon Smith.
Residents of Victoria told Stabroek News yesterday that the same night after Shamali was shot, a large number of policemen turned up in the village and created an uproar.
The police could not be contacted yesterday to respond to this contention and others by villagers neither was there any press release on the shooting.