Fish monger shot by bandits

TRAUMATISED: Aslim Mohammed yesterday recounting how his father was shot
A WELL-KNOWN fishmonger shot and robbed at a fish depot just south of Georgetown yesterday morning, was serious in hospital up to late yesterday afternoon.

Azad Mohammed, 55, also known as `Jacks’, was attacked at the wharf of the Georgetown Fishermen’s Co-op Society Limited at Meadow Bank, Greater Georgetown, witnesses said. He was there as usual to buy fish and was shot in the right side abdomen when he refused to hand over his money bag with $1.5M, they said.

Mohammed, of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara, was in critical condition in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), relatives said. He was scheduled to undergo surgery late yesterday afternoon to remove the bullet lodged in his abdomen.

 

SHOT: Azad Mohammed
His son, Aslim Mohammed, 26, of Lusignan East, told the Guyana Chronicle it was habitual for him to accompany his father to purchase fish from the wharf every morning before dawn.
He said his uncle who drives their Canter truck was also there, and about 10 minutes after they arrived and were on the wharf, three men approached his father and demanded the bag containing the money.
The younger Mohammed said at the time he was standing a short distance away from his father and the man who had a gun to his head, later shot him in the abdomen at close range.

He said the bandits grabbed the bag from his father and fled on two motorcycles which they had parked in an alleyway near the wharf. The son said the bandits escaped unchallenged although many other persons were around.

Aslim said soon after the gunmen fled he took his father, who was covered in blood and screaming in pain, to the hospital.

The Georgetown Fishermen’s Co-op Society Limited wharf where Mohammed was shot.
The Mohammeds have been in the fish business for more than 20 years and Aslim said his father religiously carried a large sum of cash in a bag on his waist.

Relatives believe the robbers had been surveying his movements for some time before they attacked yesterday.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that the day prior to the shooting, the three men identified as the same gunmen who shot Mohammed were on the wharf enquiring about his whereabouts.

Saturday, February 25, 2006