Shafeek Bacchus, a 45-year-old cattle farmer of Lot 76 Princes Street, Lodge, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital, minutes after gunmen unloaded a barrage of bullets which left him lying in a pool of blood.

The shooters, who were known to residents, drove off but not before admitting that they had hit the "wrong man".

The shooting occurred at minutes after 7 pm in front of Bacchus's house near Mandela Avenue.

Based on an eyewitness account, a white car slowly approached from a westerly direction, as Bacchus sat quite unaware in a clearing across the road from his home. He would go there in the evenings to talk with his friends.

But he was alone yesterday when the car pulled up and the occupants opened fire, leaving him slumped in the grass.

"Wrong man!" the men immediately shouted, as their car sped off in the direction of Mandela Avenue. Bacchus was soon after placed in a vehicle and rushed to the hospital.

Police arrived at the scene nearly an hour after the attack. They could be seen combing the grass looking for spent shells.

A small crowd converged at the entryway to the house, some recounting what they had seen. As police took statements, persons in the crowd identified at least two of the gunmen in the vehicle as well as the man who may have been the intended target, a close friend of Bacchus who was at the scene after the shooting.

Bacchus's own family said that it could have been nothing more than a case of mistaken identity.