Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
A routine morning trip into the “bush” turned fatal for 73-year-old gardener Stevenson Lumy, after he was shot in his leg by a trap gun in Moruga yesterday.
Relatives said Lumy had been a “bushman” and gardener all his life and left home at 6 am. Less than two hours later, they received the tragic news that he was shot by a pipe gun miles into a forested area at Figarie Trace. Still trying to come to terms with his death, his wife Evelyn Phillip spoke with Guardian Media at her Edward Trace home while being consoled by her niece, Guardian Media multi-media journalist Dareece Polo. Phillip recalled that Lumy got up yesterday morning, made his coffee as normal and then left. Never in her wildest dreams, she said, would she have thought that would be the last time she would see her husband alive.
She said another gardener told her he heard him bawling hours later and went to his assistance. He called the police and the ambulance. “He say he went to cut fig and he hear him calling out and he answered him and he say, ‘Come I get shoot here boy.’” She said the other man saw Lumy lying on the ground bleeding from his left leg near his knee.
“He (Lumy) tell him cut out his jersey and tie he foot because he foot like it mash up and he tell him cut out the boots from he foot. He put him on his shoulder and bring him out of the bush and bring him on the side of the road.”
Sadly, Lumy died before the emergency responders arrived. Recalling what she saw at the scene, Phillip said, “When I go in the bush the man (her husband) lie down on the ground there.”
She said her husband had been advised by his doctor to refrain from venturing into the bushes. “He said, ‘Do not go back in the bush Mr Lumy. Make your lil garden home do not go back in the bush because if you get wet in the bush there is a possibility you will die.’ But, he tell me, ‘I stubborn you know, I going back in the bush’ and he went.”
She said he was aware of the dangers of going in the bush, particularly since it was the second time he had been shot by a trap gun. She said hunters often set trap guns to catch animals, mostly deer.
“He knows the danger, somebody pipe gun shoot him in both legs. He spent how much days in the hospital. He like that. He like the bush. He like the challenge.”
However, she advised other adventure seekers to be careful when exploring forested areas. “Tell them for me please, it does have pipe gun in the bush and they have to be extra careful. Be vigilant of your surroundings when you enter in the green because you could never tell where the gun is, where the trap gun is.”
Describing Lumy as a loving man, she said he had liked her since she was 13 years old and used to follow her around on a mule, but they only got married four years ago. Their first child was born in 1979.
“That man was a lover. A lover of children, any child, but when you get rude he drop you,” she said. Lumy was the father of two and grandfather of one. His sister-in-law Hyacinth Joshua said she fondly called him Papa Bois. “Ever since I know him he is about 70-something and I always know him as a bush man. They have garden and plenty land and he likes planting and like his hands have fertiliser, anything he plants does come real nice,” Joshua said. She said he never expressed any fear about going into the bush. Joshua said it was unlikely they would ever find out who had set the pipe gun that killed him.
Meanwhile, Vallence Rambharat, of the Hunters’ Search and Rescue Team, condemned the continued use of trap guns. He said, “Persons who continue to set traps must understand that these devices can be fatal to users of our forests and farmlands. This practice must be widely condemned and those who continue to do so must be targeted and prosecuted just as criminals. There exists absolutely no sport in this practice .”
Expressing condolences to Lumy’s family, Rambbharat said his team will continue to work with law enforcement and game wardens to eradicate the scourge of trap guns in the country, while continuing to promote best practices in the sport of hunting.
