Shot waitress still to undergo surgery

Jun 02, 2016 News

… bullet passes through waitress’ windpipe; oesophagus

The surgery which was supposed to be performed on 16-year-old Onika Luke to remove a bullet said to be lodged in her throat, has been further postponed mainly because of the position of the bullet.

Shot waitress:
Onika Luke

This newspaper was told that the bullet passed through the teen’s windpipe and oesophagus. The windpipe also called trachea is a tube that allows the passage of air. When a person swallows, the food passes through the oesophagus from the mouth to the stomach.
Because of the position of the bullet, the teen is unable to eat or breathe making the operation complicated.
“The doctor said that the oesophagus was damaged and her wind pipe is also damaged,” a relative said.
She is still a patient in the Intensive Care Unit at a private hospital.
The teen was shot when a lone gunman stormed the Better Hope restaurant and shot her when she failed to hand over the day’s sales. 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. She was able to do so by writing.
On the night of the shooting, her brother, Rickford Ranjee, explained that 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 her face and the bullet left in her throat,” Ranjee explained.
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.
He said that at the hospital, his sister wrote on paper 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.