A couple of inches was the relatively short distance which proved to be the difference between life and death for 18-month-old Imani George whose head was grazed by a bullet in a brazen shooting attack in east Port-of-Spain on Tuesday afternoon. George remained warded in a stable condition yesterday at the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital, Mt Hope, yesterday.
His mother, Lichel Francois, whose right forearm was the final destination of the bullet after it struck the toddler, was treated and discharged from hospital yesterday morning but remained there to monitor his condition. As she left her son’s bedside for five minutes to speak with media personnel yesterday afternoon, Francois thanked God as she admitted their injuries could have been worse if the bullet’s trajectory was slightly different.
“It could have been worse. He (Imani) is just in a lot of pain but he playing and eating,” Francois said as she gave an update on her son’s condition. Francois, who said she was deeply traumatised by the incident, vowed not to return to that area of Port-of-Spain again. “I used to pass there everyday on my way home with my son but I can’t do that again. Port-of-Spain getting scary. You can’t linger in town anymore,” Francois said.
Recounting the incident, Francois, who is employed at the St James Early Childhood Centre, said she was feeling ill on Tuesday and left work early to return to her home at Trou Macaque Road, Laventille. Francois and George had just boarded a taxi on Nelson Street when upon reaching the intersection with Prince Street she heard a loud explosion.
“I start to quarrel with the driver because I thought he ran over a glass bottle. Is only when I heard a next noise I realised it was gunshots,” Francois said. The young mother said she told the taxi driver to drive to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital after she felt a burning sensation in her arm and saw that her son was bleeding. She said she did not see the shooter as her head was down at the time.
“It had plenty traffic and we weren’t going anywhere. I jumped out of the car with him (George) in my arms and I start to run to the hospital,” Francois said.
Kudos for doctors
Francois said she was lucky to see a police car responding to the scene of the shooting, stopped it and was taken to the hospital. Asked about the treatment she received there and later in Mt Hope, Francois described the staff at both institutions as wonderful and kind. “They attended to us immediately. Doctors and nurses even came by his bedside last night to pray for him,” Francois said.
The T&T Guardian also spoke with Francois’ mother, Hazelyn Harewood-Edwards, who sent a message to the perpetrators of the shooting. “Black people, you need to put down your guns because you are not serving a purpose. All you are doing is hurting people just like you,” she said. Police sources were said to be reviewing CCTV footage of the incident up to last night in an attempt to identify the suspects.
From preliminary reports from eyewitnesses, however, police said the gunshots appeared to have come from a white car with five people. It stopped near the taxi at around 2.45 pm. Investigators are yet to determine who was the target of the shooting and the motive behind it. However, they believe Francois and her son were in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one had been arrested up to late yesterday.
ASP Ajith Persad, Insp Etienne and Sgt Spence and detectives of the Port-of-Spain CID are continuing investigations.