Conductor takes two bullets fighting off gunman

Jun 17, 2009 News

A minibus conductor is hospitalized with two gunshot wounds after being attacked by a passenger he had picked up from Agricola last night.
Schandel Singh, 35 of Brickery, East Bank Demerara was shot in his right thigh and abdomen when he tried to fight off the passenger who had grabbed the cash he was carrying in his hand.
Up to press time last night, doctors at the hospital had removed the bullet from Singh’s thigh and were trying to locate the other one.
His condition was listed as stable.
The driver of the minibus, Roopchand Budhai, told Kaieteur News that they had picked up the passenger at Agricola on the East Bank of Demerara while heading to the city.
He said that the passenger requested to come off at the junction of Princes and Lombard Streets, an area devoid of street lights.
As the passenger got out of the bus he grabbed at the cash that Singh had in his hand and a scuffle ensued.
“By the conductor bigger than he, he was able to push de bandit. When de man realize that he can’t get de money easy, he pull out he gun and ‘Pax! Pax!
He shoot de boy. He get some of de money and de conductor say, ‘Drive, drive before he shoot any more body’,” the minibus driver recalled.
He said that he drove to the Stabroek Market Bus Park and put off the passengers, one of whom was grazed by one of the spent shells, and hurried with his injured conductor to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
“I just drive straight hey. We didn’t collect no money from nobody,” Budhai said.
During the journey to the hospital, Singh managed to contact his relatives on a cellular phone to inform them that he was shot.
Anxious relatives turned up at the hospital and were relieved that Singh was relatively out of danger.
In the aftermath of the shooting, ranks from the police anti-crime unit combed the Stabroek Market Bus Park for any sign of the suspect but so far no one has been arrested.