Police believe they can make an arrest in Thursday’s incident in which three people were shot at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
Injured in the shooting were Chavez Toppin, 20; Alexandra Badal, 29, of Barataria; and Sileen Maxwell Vialva, 28, a nursing student of Siparia.
Toppin was shot twice in the abdomen, while Alexandra, an environmental worker at the hospital, remained warded at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital late yesterday. She was shot in the face. Vialva was shot in the calf.
The shooting took place in front of one of the food stalls at the hospital.
Vialva had gone to visit her uncle Felix, who works at a food booth in the grounds of the hospital.
In an interview at the hospital yesterday, Vialva said: “I usually pass to see him, and it happened so fast. I came from classes. My friend who was there with me is okay but she is traumatised. She said she could not sleep last night,” she said.
Told police said an arrest was imminent, Vialva said: “That’s good, very good.”
Debra Cummings, Badal’s mother, said her daughter was still in critical condition in the ICU.
“There is adversity and adversity comes and adversity goes.
“Jehovah is good. The bullet went through her face and come out on the side and didn’t damage any important organs. It went through her face. She is in critical and stable now but she is sedated,” she said.
Nurses said Toppin was discharged from hospital.
Vialva’s uncle (Felix) said he was disappointed with the Government, which had promised to fight crime when it came into power.
“The Government is playing the fool and they are not serious about crime. Criminals commit crime. The law of Moses said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. They put them in prison to get fat and when they come out they are turning violent.
“Look how much murders we have for the year.”
Recalling the shooting, he said: “I heard gunshots like it was a war zone. My niece said, ‘Oh God, uncle, I get shoot,’ and when I look at Alexis she had a bullet in her eye. She fell down on the ground and the lady who is here caught her.
“The whole ground is white now, but you couldn’t see it. Blood was scattered all over the place. All I see is that her eyes were staring straight ahead and began to close. I didn’t want her to die here.”
Security guards at the hospital said they were not armed when the shooting occurred. One of the guards said she ducked and sought cover until the noise stopped.
Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson said there would be more patrols in the area.
Dr Eddie Haqq, chairman of the board of the Northwest Regional Health Authority, said during a telephone interview there was a recent tender for a security company for the various hospitals.