Shooting victim clings to life
Police were on the scene well into last night and today they’ve been busy trying to piece together a motive and the physical evidence to find the man who shot a Tropic Air employee. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods today visited Universal Health Services where Loren Augustus clings to life with a bullet lodged in his brain.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The shooting of thirty-one year old Loren Dale Augustus has left his family, friends, and co-workers in despair. Augustus is not known as a troublemaker and is considered by acquaintances to be a quiet, devoted single father who worked hard to provide for his four and eight-year-old sons.
Dana Augustus, Sister of Shooting Victim
?If he was a little boy who was a menace to society then I would understand, but he noh have no problem with no policeman or nothing, so I noh even know what to think. He dah noh a club person, he dah noh a drink person, he noh smoke, he noh nothing. He dah all for him and his two sons. From work to home that?s all, he noh go no way.?
Around six on Tuesday evening, Augustus, who worked as a ramp supervisor at Tropic Air for the past ten years was on his way home from the Municipal Airstrip when the shooter, described only as a tall, slim, dark-complexioned man with side burns rode up to his unsuspecting victim and fired a single shot from close range.
Dana Augustus says her brother was in the company of two co-workers riding their bicycles on St. Matthew Street when he decided to turn back to get something at his workplace. He did not get far, however, as a gunshot rang out and Augustus dropped to the ground. The shooter reportedly stood several minutes over his victim and then fled the scene.
Augustus was first rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital then transported to Universal Health Services where he underwent four hours of surgery. The bullet damaged a main artery in the brain and doctors were unable to stop the bleeding or remove the bullet because of its location. Doctors say the prognosis is very poor. Augustus? breathing is shallow and he remains on life support.
Dana Augustus
?They cannot do anything more, so we just have to wait and see what will happen.?
The police are investigating one possible motive that may have to do with an alleged ongoing custody dispute. Family and friends say Augustus had been threatened on a number of occasions and in a previous incident was beaten by several men.
Dana Augustus
?All I know, we need to find who shoot my little brother because who shoot him has no heart, they noh have no heart.?
Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
Police say they have detained one person in connection with the shooting.
