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Shot former Prison Officer still awaits compensation
The date was September 26, 2002. Lloyd Bruce, a former Prison Officer, happened to be visiting the Guyana Prison Service Sports Club located across the road from the Camp Street jail. At the time he was a member of the ex-Prison Officers Club.
A few months earlier, on February 23, five notorious criminals escaped from the Camp Street jail and sparked a reign of terror unheard of in the history of the country. The five were Dale Moore, Mark Fraser, Troy Dick, Shawn Brown and Andrew Douglas.
Shot former prison officer Lloyd Bruce
Dale Moore probably had a score to settle with a former policeman who had become court prosecutor and who visited the Prison Officers Club, because on September 26, that year, he and five other gunmen paid a sudden visit to the club across the road from the very facility from which they escaped.
Bruce, who lives at South Vryheid’s Lust, was sitting not far from the door when Moore and his group entered so he had no place to run. He bore the brunt of a shotgun blast to his hand.
He later said that when he saw the gun go up he put up his hand by reflex. The bullet destroyed his left hand. He saved his life by playing dead.
From the club he was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital “with an extensive open wound, contaminated with numerous pellets and exposed tendons.”
A medical report stated that there “were multiple fractures noted in the carpal bones.
Mr. Bruce developed infections to his wound and had further surgical toileting done.”
He was to spend just over two weeks in hospital before he was discharged on October 11, 2002.
Today, more than seven years later he is still to receive a promised compensation.
Today there are still pellets in the hand.
One Dr Samaroo wrote later that “despite doing tendon release on March 24, 2003, and physiotherapy, Mr. Bruce has developed almost complete fusion to his fingers of his dominant hand.”
In the wake of the shooting, Mr. Bruce visited countless Government Ministries.
In March 2006, with the help of Nigel Hawke, at the time a lawyer attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs during the tenure of Minister Gail Teixeira, Bruce was recommended to receive $1.5 million by way of ex gratia payment.
The lawyer reported that Minister Teixeira had sought the advice of the Attorney General on the ex gratia payment.
The lawyer wrote, “From a perusal of the medical certificate and more particularly the physiotherapy report from the Georgetown Public Hospital it is evident that Mr. Bruce has lost the significant use of his left arm and had to be trained to use his right arm.” Bruce was left-handed.
The lawyer contended that Bruce would have suffered pain as well as loss of amenities and his earning capacity would have been significantly reduced.
Since that recommendation, he has written to none other than President Bharrat Jagdeo but he is still to receive the recommended ex gratia payment. In fact, he never got a reply to the letter to the Head-of-State. He had ended that letter, “My case rests with you, Your Excellency.”
He had already spoken to Minister Clement Rohee and Dr Roger Luncheon, to no avail.
Dale Moore and the other escapees have all been killed but not before they had spawned a gang of gunmen who used high-powered weapons and who helped damage the image of Buxton. And Bruce is still to hear anything about his ex-gratia payment.
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