Shot waitress awaits surgery to remove bullet from throat

May 30, 2016 News

The 16-year-old waitress, who was shot Friday night, during a botched robbery at the Chinese Restaurant where she was working, is awaiting surgery to remove a bullet that is lodged in her throat.
Onika Luke of Lot 1 Vryheid Luis, East Coast Demerara (ECD) remains in a critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at a private hospital.
She was shot when a lone gunman stormed the Better Hope restaurant and shot her when she failed to hand over the day’s sale. The teen’s left thumb was also shot off. The bullet passed through her chin and is lodged in her throat.
At the hospital, she reportedly identified her shooter as a tall man of African descent. He has a tattoo on his neck.
She told the cops that the shooter had threatened to kidnap her a few days ago while she was walking on the road.
Yesterday, her brother, Rickford Ranjee said that his sibling is doing a little better than she was on the day she was injured.
He was however upset with the hospital staff for “taking long to operate” on his teenage sister. “They keep postponing the surgery and I don’t know why. She still cannot speak because of where the bullet is lodged.”
On the night of the shooting, he explained, he was asleep when the owner of the Chinese Restaurant visited their home and informed relatives that Luke had been shot and that she was at the hospital.
“He told me to put on clothes and let’s go to the hospital. When I go there now, I see she ain’t only get shoot to her thumb but to face and the bullet left in her throat,” Ranjee explained.

Shot: Onika Luke

The sibling revealed that he was informed that the shooter entered the restaurant and ordered half veggie fried rice.
“When my sister collected his (gunman) money and put it in the drawer, he grabbed on to her jersey and pulled her towards the grill work. He told her to give him the money in the drawer but how he was holding her, there was no way she could have reached the money,” Ranjee related.
He further revealed that because his sister could not have reached the cash, the bandit fired a shot, which struck off her thumb, hit her chin and is now lodged in her throat.
“She is only 16 years; that person ain’t got no heart. That money is not her own,” the devastated brother lamented.
He said that at the hospital, his sister wrote on papers and informed the cops that her shooter would normally frequent the Better Hope area.
“She said she doesn’t know him but she does see him around and she could identify him. The same boy, she said, had told her that he noticed she walking late and that he would kidnap her,” Ranjee said.
The teen attends St. John’s College and works at the restaurant after school.
Police are still trying to locate the shooter.