A 36-year-old utility operator is now nursing two gunshot wounds to his feet after he was shot and robbed of his gold band and cellphone worth close to $300,000 on Thursday.
The News Room understands that the incident occurred just after midday while Christopher Gravesande was on his lunch break.
During a telephone interview with the News Room, Gravesande, who is working on the Cemetery Road project, said he parked the machine he was operating and was having lunch.
He said he was approached by a lone gunman who demanded that he hand over the gold band and his cellphone.
“I was eating my lunch and upon putting my bowl back into the bag, I was approached by a gunman and he said ‘give me that gold band’ that was on my right hand.
“He try fighting to pull it and it couldn’t burst and then he said ‘loose it out, loose it out’. I take my hand out of the bag and I loose it out and then he ask for my phone,” Gravesande told the News Room.
During the process, the gunman opened fire and Gravesande was struck twice.
“When I was about to come out to him then is when he shoot me. Both of my legs, the bullets enter and exit,” he said.
The suspect then escaped on a motorcycle.
Gravesande said he then tried to make his way out of the machine and he collapsed.
He said he was left there for a while before he was taken for medical attention.
“After I got shot when I was coming out of the machine, I fell onto the ground and I was asking people to drop me to the hospital but everybody just park and watch.
“So a bike man came, he had two cases of Guinness on his bike, he put it aside and he ask the guys to pick me up and put me on the bike. He was like hold on, I going to drop you to the hospital,” Gravesande explained.
A report was made to the Police.
“The people came at the health centre on Cemetery Road there and I haven’t heard back a word from anybody,” he noted.
