Shooting was a freak accident

The condition of nineteen year old Ahmad Nah remains much the same; Nah is breathing through life support equipment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Police are treating the shooting of the Camalote resident, as a sensitive case – partly because no one knows for sure what happened when he was shot, and because the only other person who was in the room with him is a twelve year old girl. Nah was at the girl’s home in Camalote when he suffered the pellet wound that has rendered him brain dead.  The two were good friends and today when Marion Ali caught up with the little girl, she and her mother said it was not intentional. And from their story it sounds like it was a freak accident.

Marion Ali

“It is still uncertain what happened just moments before nineteen year old Ahmad Nah was shot on Sunday afternoon.  But News Five understands that Nah was at this house behind me when the incident occurred.  His grandmother, Gloria Henry said she saw him just moments before.”

Gloria Henry, Ahmad Nah’s Grandmother

“Sunday ah mi di cook white rice, stew beans and chicken so ih tell me granny I want some ah dah food cause ih smell nice. I seh yes baby you wah get some. So ih eat and everything.  Soh wah accident happen right front ah we soh all ah we run out. When it run ih tell me granny I gwein out now. When I hear bout round two soh dehn come tell me guess who get shot. Yoh grandson get shot.”

Marion Ali, Reporting

The house where Ahmad was is the home of this woman, Amina Shabazz, and her family.  And in the middle of the sensitive issue is her twelve year old daughter, who witnessed the incident but is still being blamed by some for it because she was in the room when the pellet gun accidentally discharged.  We caught up with both mother and child in Belmopan today and according to them the gun was against a wall when a toddler tripped over it and it discharged.

Amina Shabazz, Mother of Ahmad’s Friend

Amina Shabazz

“Wah lee friend over di next side buck ih foot and dah right pan di door side di gun mi deh and ih drop and when she mek fi pick it up, Arlene, di same lee young bwai weh get shot Ahmad bend down di same time fi pick up fi he phone and when she pick up di gun, ih went off. So it was accidental.”

Shabazz says the incident has left her young daughter traumatized and unable to attend classes.

Amina Shabazz

“Ih noh eat and I ker ah dah hospital and dehn seh if ih continue like dat, ih wah get crazy. Soh anywhere I turn I ahve to ker ah. I noh want lef ah by ihself.  I noh send ah dah school cause di lee pickni dehn tease ah so I noh send ah.”

Marion Ali

“How does she sleep?”

Amina Shabazz

“Ih noh sleep. I have to give ah sleeping pills and ih still only sleep fi wah hour.”

Ahmad Nah

The girl asked her mom to take her to see her friend Ahmad today and she told us she read the scriptures for him.

Voice of: Ahmad’s Friend

“My granma come see we and ih seh if we ker fi we bible mek we read it to ah. Den I mi ker my one den me and ih ma mi di read it to ah den I mi di hold ih hand.”

Marion Ali

“You wanted to read the scripture to him?”

Voice of: Ahmad’s Friend

“I done read it fi ah when I gone deh cause I mi gone si ah.”

Marion Ali

“He’s your good friend noh?”

Voice of: Ahmad’s Friend

“Yeah, cause everyday ih deh deh.”

Prayers are keeping the Ahmad’s family hopeful for some positive sign.  But while they wait they have some sobering advice for parents with weapons lying around.

Diana Nah, Mother of Ahmad Nah

Diana Nah

“I just want my son to get better.  And parents right now who di watch dis, yoh have dehn pellet gun, whatever toys weh could hurt people just get rid ah it because we never know dat wah pellet could do so much damage right.  Just get rid ah dehn pellet gun around the house, put it away cause its dangerous, not only for the animal dehn like go shooting for humans being so I hope dehn get this message.”

We understand that the family usually keeps the loaded pellet gun against the wall because they used it often for hunting.  Ahmad Nah will undergo a cat scan on Friday after the swelling on the brain subsides.  Marion Ali for News Five.

Ahmad’s mother, Diana Nah appeals to authorities to curb the availability of pellet guns by issuing licenses because of the damage they can cause.