A six-year-old boy is now hospitalised and is in critical condition after he was shot in his head on Tuesday evening in Charlestown, Georgetown.
Injured is six-year-old Jeremiah Gustave of Charles Street, Georgetown, and a pupil of Smith Memorial Primary School. He was shot at about 19:45h on Tuesday just outside his home.
According to police reports, the child was standing next to his 39-year-old mother, who is a food vendor, on the eastern side of Charles Street, Charlestown when the suspect approached on a black motorcycle, with a gun in his hand.
As he approached, the woman’s food stall, he discharged four rounds in the direction of a man known as ‘Crab’, who was standing not far from the six-year-old and his mother. ‘Crab’ ran and made good his escape. In the process, the six-year-old was shot, and he fell to the ground.
The injured child was picked up by his mother and taken to a city hospital, where he is receiving medical attention. Two 9mm spent shells were recovered at the scene by Police.
Speaking with Guyana Times, the child’s mother, Keisha Gustave, recalled the moment her son was shot. She recounted having heard gunshots in the community earlier but dismissed it as fireworks.
“I sell chicken and chips and Jeremiah came to me last night (Tuesday) and he asked me for some fries. I told him he was going to get the fries just now. I put on the fries for him and he was sitting and waiting. I kept hearing this scrib sound but I didn’t take it for nothing. He kept asking me, ‘Mommy the thing finished?”, she explained.
“By the time I turned around to take out the fish out of the pot, I heard him shouting for ‘Mommy, Mommy!’. When I turned, I see my son in a pool of blood, and a guy next door rushed over immediately and he took us to the hospital”.
The mother said her son was shot through his temple, and the bullet was lodged at the back of his head. After the shooting, he underwent emergency surgery and is currently on life support. The doctors have given him 48 hours to show signs of improvement, according to his family members.
“To be honest, I don’t even have words. I need justice for my son. He is just six years old. How can they do something like this to my son? Jeremiah is just six and he is just a little innocent child. Is that what you will do to an innocent child? Oh my God! I can’t take this”, the tearful mother expressed.
“Watching at my son I just keep breaking down into tears. I went to the hospital, I kept calling him, ‘Jerry, Jerry mommy needs you, your family needs you, Jerry. Please come back home to us, please’. All his eyes keep doing is moving all the time and all the doctors keep saying that we have to wait”.
Meanwhile, the mother is hoping that the suspect will be arrested soon so that she will be able to get justice for her son.
