by An­na-Lisa Paul

A Venezue­lan na­tion­al who ac­cept­ed a pri­vate-hire work from a man he met whilst lim­ing in a bar in Curepe, was lat­er robbed of his car and valu­ables be­fore be­ing shot.

The 30-year-old who lives at Watts Street, Curepe was drink­ing with a 35-year-old male friend at the pop­u­lar bar on Au­gust 5, when they were ap­proached by the sus­pect around 2.15 am on Au­gust 6, who asked to be tak­en to Lloyd Street, San Juan.

The trio left the bar in the vic­tim’s sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da and as they reached Sun­shine Av­enue, Bagatelle Ex­ten­sion - the sus­pect, who was seat­ed in the back­seat, an­nounced a hold-up and pulled a firearm from his waist.

As the dri­ver be­gan fight­ing with the sus­pect, the friend ex­it­ed the car and raised an alarm.

At the same time, the sus­pect shot the dri­ver in the left but­tock and forced him to ex­it the car.

As the dri­ver col­lapsed on the road, the sus­pect sped off in the car.

As a re­sult of the lan­guage bar­ri­er, re­spond­ing of­fi­cers were un­able to un­der­stand the vic­tim’s ac­count and de­scrip­tion of the sus­pect.

How­ev­er, they took the in­jured man to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ence Com­plex, Mt Hope where he was treat­ed and ward­ed in a sta­ble con­di­tion.

The vic­tim’s friend lat­er went to the San Juan Po­lice Sta­tion to re­port the mat­ter.

He was ac­com­pa­nied by a friend who as­sist­ed with trans­lat­ing.

En­quiries are con­tin­u­ing.