Cop's injured daughter leaves hospital
Stabroek News
May 7, 2003
Shamali Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of a senior policeman who was shot nine days ago by a lone gunman, was discharged from the Georgetown Public Hospital on Monday.
She is the second of three children for policeman Eon Smith and was attacked and shot several times on the night of April 26 as she was on her way home along the Victoria Main Road, East Coast Demerara. She was shot in the ribs, damaging her spleen and lung; also the upper chest and right hand. In the process her spine as well as one of her legs were reportedly damaged.
A senior police source said yesterday that Smith's father reported that the girl was "doing well." The teen had attended a 'Back to School' dance at a sports ground in the village and was returning home at about 9.30 pm.
After the attack, the police issued a wanted bulletin for 19-year-old Danavan Keith Hailes, of 30 Church of God Road, Buxton for questioning.
Hailes is also wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of a Presidential Guard at Buxton some weeks ago as well as for escaping from custody at the Ruimveldt Police Station earlier this year.
Some observers now say that criminals might be hiding out behind the villages of Cove and John, Victoria and Nabacalis. Persons have reported seeing cars plying certain deserted roads. They say these vehicles are sometimes spotted covered up in the backlands.
The police are urging anyone with information concerning Hailes to contact them on telephone numbers 225-8196, 226-1326, 225-3650, 226-6978, 225-2317.
Meanwhile, residents of Victoria are persisting with their allegations that following Smith's attack several police officers turned up in the village and created an uproar.
"They start shooting up in de air...shut down de dance, shut down de wake," one person said. An old woman, who had attended the 'wake' over the line-top, said when the cops started shooting, "Everybody clear out de wake...I walk, I run...'til I meet home. If [the police] did want find out anything, [they] shoulda come and ask...not shoot up de place like duh..."
But Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superinten-dent David Ramnarine told Stabroek News: "The Guyana Police Force is not in receipt of any official report of such an incident/s. There have been a number of unofficial reports of discharging of firearms and hurling of abuses from a number of residents, but unless those residents can come forward and have those episodes properly documented, other actions certainly do not help the situation and will not [give] the force [grounds] into getting to the bottom of whether these gross infractions were indeed committed by a few of its members."
