Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Shot Nations Principal offers $1M reward for info on gunman
Frustrated with the sloth of progress in finding the individual who shot him, School of the Nations principal, Brian O’Toole has put up a $1M reward for information that leads to the arrest of the culprit.
O’Toole, who is currently in the UK, said he has travelled so that he may undergo a fifth surgery on his paralysed left arm.
Brian O’Toole was shot on January 27, an incident which followed a flurry of bomb threats to several institutions, starting with the School of the Nations.
According to O’Toole, the shooter had 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 had 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.
Principal of School of the Nations, Brian O’Toole
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. He believes that the shooter was heavily influenced by that game to commit the shooting.
O’Toole has stressed his keenness to address the “dangerous and pernicious influence from dark, evil video games like Fortnite.”
The Nations’ administration is still utilising the services of a private security firm to provide beefed up security for the school.
The Professor said that this issue now “is far greater than the suffering of a handful of people”. The matter has been reported on in the UK, the US, Canada and across the Caribbean, but the police are still to uncover information pertinent to the investigation. O’Toole has suggested that the hold-up is due to well connected individuals deliberately driving a wedge in the investigation process.
However, last week, The Guyana Police Force indicated that it has requested help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to probe the shooting. The US-based investigators are reportedly being asked to locate a Florida-based former student who is deemed as one of the persons of interest in the case.
He described the ex-student as an individual whose name “has been in the press many times.”
The ex-student is also believed to have made an audio in which he is heard “laughing and gloating” about the incident.
During the shared press conference with the Police Commissioner, Leslie James, O’Toole had said that he has already given that audio footage to the American Embassy.
Commissioner James had disclosed that the police are in possession of an audio that appears to be linked to the attack. He described the audio as “a significant piece of evidence” which the police only received [last] Monday. The recording was reportedly made two weeks ago.
According to O’Toole, “the person who gave it to us begged us not to use it because (the person) is frightened…”
Asked about knowledge of the identity of the shooter, O’Toole said that, when he was shown the photograph, “my whole body reacted…Every atom in my body responded.” But James said that documents seen by investigators indicated that the individual whom O’Toole had initially believed to be the shooter had travelled out of Guyana on December 15, 2018.
O’Toole said that he believes the shooter “now lives in the sunshine in the USA” and that his name is known to hundreds of persons, including the police.
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