Shot School of Nations principal suggests well connected individuals involved in attack

Apr 01, 2019 News

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Two months ago, the Principal of School of the Nations, Dr. Brian O’Toole was shot twice by an assailant who is yet to be positively identified. Today, O’Toole is still nursing his left arm after one of those bullets shattered the bone and broke an artery in that arm.
The circumstances surrounding this matter are bizarre, and every new development has left the public with way more questions than answers. Worrying to O’toole is the fact that the matter seems to have died down, and he questions whether there are duplicitous individuals interfering with the progression of the investigation by the Guyana Police Service.
In an interview with this publication, the Principal said that multiple publications have carried spurious allegations, including outright fabrication of statements attributed to him. So Kaieteur News has taken the initiative to correct some of these misrepresentations.
On the night of January 27, O’Toole said, he got home at about 9:45 p.m.. He had little reason to believe that an intruder got inside his yard – let alone, his house – since his gate was locked and his fences were topped with barbed wires. So he closed the gate after he entered the yard and headed toward the house.

But he said that as he moved to the door, he saw a figure walking toward him. The figure appeared to be a young man of small stature. O’Toole described him as “short and skinny, wearing black knitted trousers and sneakers with white soles.”
As the individual strode toward him, O’Toole said that he noticed a nervousness about him, which made him think that his presence there was a part of some sort of prank. But then the young man, armed, fired three shots. The first shot missed, the second one hit and went through his right arm, and the third one went through his left arm. It was the third shot that left the lasting injury.
Bizarrely, O’Toole said that the assailant performed a strange dance after he shot him, which was later identified as a dance from a viral, online video game called Fortnite.
O’Toole said that it had puzzled him how this young man entered and exited the premises. However, the next day, his son, who had flown in from the USA two hours after hearing of the shooting, and some police officers scouted the premises and found a folded zinc sheet on the barbed fence behind the house. It appeared to O’Toole that the assailant used this contrapment to cover the razor wire to enter and exit the yard safely. It reportedly also appeared that he had been waiting for the Principal for some time, given that there was no way he could have known the specific time O’Toole have arrived.
He said that his neighbour heard sounds of movements against a zinc sheet and a subsequent motor engine, which led them to conclude that the shooter had escaped on a motorbike.
It was reported that, after being shown a photo of a young man, O’Toole positively identified that person as the shooter, but authorities later responded that the person he identified was not in the jurisdiction at the time of the shooting. Dr. O’Toole is a psychologist and has lectured the police at training sessions on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Being a psychologist, O’Toole said that he understands how the human mind can be prone to error, but he explained that, when he saw the photo, his whole body responded in the same way someone would react after encountering a trigger of a traumatic event. Dr O’Toole added that he is seeking privy legal advice to confirm whether that person of interest was in Guyana at that time or not. A number of persons have come forward to say that they saw this person in Guyana during the same period.
Because the identity of that individual was not made public, there was widespread speculation, on the part of a number of persons, that the person who O’Toole identified was the same person as the student who was expelled from the School of the Nations earlier, for posting something on his Whatsapp status that appeared to be a threat against the school. That student later informed this publication that the content of his post was misconstrued, and that it was all apart of a ‘joke’ that was blown widely out of proportion. That student had said that he was often made the butt of jokes by his peers about a stereotype of people of Caucasian descent, that is, that they were likely to “shoot up” schools. He had said that the status he posted was just a continuation of the ‘joke’.
O’Toole told this publication that he never accused that student of being the shooter, nor did he accuse him of being in league with the shooter, because he hasn’t witnessed sufficient evidence to point to that. He stated categorically that any identification will be a matter solely between him and the police, and then the judiciary.
However, there is still some amount of speculation whether the shooter is in league with, or is the person who has been identified as an administrator of a Facebook page that posted very serious threats against the school. That Facebook Page, titled ‘Nations Trollolololo’ had posted several threats, including one made to ‘blow up the school’ which was made hours before O’Toole was shot.
Days after O’Toole was shot, a post was made by the Facebook page, appearing to be from someone in league with the shooter, claiming profound remorse. The post stated that the individual would cooperate with police and help them to identify the shooter, in exchange for complete immunity.
To this day, O’Toole said that the situation makes no sense. He said that he hasn’t yet any reason to make a connection between the three individuals – the expelled student, the shooter, and the individual behind the Facebook page ‘Nations Trollolololo’.
What he has concluded, along with many others, however, is that at least two involved individuals are alleged to be connected to persons in positions of power.
“It could perhaps end up pointing to people of real prominence in society,” O’Toole said, “[which] may of course, if true, make it much more difficult to get justice.”
He expressed immense disappointment that the police haven’t engaged more with the administration to give updates on the investigation, since the administration is still utilising the services of a private security firm to provide beefed up security for the school. Dr. O’Toole said that, to date, the police have not sought him out for any follow up to the report he gave, more than eight weeks ago.
Further, O’Toole said that he does not have a vendetta but that he is looking for the issue to be solved as soon as possible, and would like to understand “simply” why the shooter did what he did.
Dr. O’Toole also stressed that he feels the horrors of the past two months have “in fact” galvanised the school community. Nations has now introduced a youth and junior youth training programme, each Saturday, focusing on social issues which include violence, drug abuse, dangers of the internet, and counselling.
Dr. O’Toole shared that a number of school districts in the United Kingdom are taking very active steps to educate children and youth about games like Fortnite. Dr. O’Toole is particularly keen to address the “dangerous and pernicious influence from dark, evil video games like Fortnite.”

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