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Mandela Avenue Shooting …Bus driver said wounded passenger had ‘shine’ object

Jul 30, 2013 News

Minibus driver Adrian Brandt yesterday alleged that he saw his front seat passenger, Lloyd Britton, hand over a ‘shine object’ to another commuter after he was shot during last Friday’s deadly confrontation on Mandela Avenue.
But the Route 47 driver said he could not ascertain whether the ‘shine object’ was a firearm. He stated that a police rank who was with the now-dead Elvis Fernandes was the only person he saw shooting.
Police have stated that Britton had shot Fernandes and was himself wounded by a police rank who had intervened. Britton has already denied shooting Fernandes.
Kaieteur News was told that the shooting occurred after the owner of a car had accused Brandt of damaging his vehicle.
Brandt said that he was driving along Mandela Avenue around 17:20 hrs when Fernandes, who was on a scooter and the owner of a silver car blocked his path. Brandt said that he knew both men, as well as Britton, who was in the front passenger seat of his bus.
According to the minibus driver, the occupant of the car accused him (Brandt) of damaging his vehicle.
“He say that I jam him earlier in the day when I was driving a 212, and I scratch his mirror.”
According to Brandt, Fernandes, whom he knew, came to his defence. “Fernandes say that I does drive bus and it can’t be me.”
He alleged that Lloyd Britton, who was in the front seat, intervened, and the men began to threaten Britton, while Fernandes called the passenger a ‘thief.’
“He (Fernandes) say ‘you know this thiefin one…he snatch somebody chain and we was to kill he.”
But the minibus operator said that a police patrol came on the scene and ordered the men to disperse. They also suggested that the owner of the car could file a report about the alleged accident.
Brandt said that he then returned to the West Ruimveldt minibus park where he picked up passengers. However, he said that Britton remained in the minibus.
Brandt said that he was driving east along Mandela Avenue when he observed the same car trailing him. He said that when he stopped to put off a passenger in the vicinity of the West Ruimveldt playground he heard the screeching of brakes. On looking into his rearview mirror, Brandt said that he saw three men emerge from the car.
“One (a police rank) had a gun in hand, the driver had a long cutlass, and Fernandes, who had an ice-pick,” Brandt said.
The minibus operator claimed that while Fernandes ran towards the conductor side of the bus, the driver of the car began to attack him with the cutlass. He also recalled that his passenger, Lloyd Britton, had exited the bus when the men emerged from the car.
“The driver go to me and start fire chops, and I pull back and brace on a passenger, and (then) I hear shots.”
He said that he looked into his rearview mirror and saw the policeman shooting.
Brandt said that his passengers began to scream and urge him to drive away, but then Britton clambered back into the vehicle and said “I get knock.”
Brandt said that he saw the wounded Britton hand over “a shine object” to another passenger, while urging him to drive to the hospital.
However, Brandt said that he dropped off the other passengers in Mandela Avenue and headed to the Ruimveldt Police Station before taking the wounded man to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Brandt said that police ranks at the GPHC questioned him for hours before releasing him. He said that the ranks confiscated his cell phone.
A woman who was travelling in Brandt’s bus also said that the occupants of the car had attacked the minibus operators. She also said that she saw a man who identified himself as a police rank discharge at least three rounds.
However, she was unable to say who shot Fernandes.

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