RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

Trini­bad artiste Mescach “Plumpy Boss” Em­manuel is ex­pect­ed to be air­lift­ed from St Maarten to a lo­cal hos­pi­tal for ur­gent med­ical treat­ment, fol­low­ing a shoot­ing in­ci­dent on Sat­ur­day. 

Around 4 am, af­ter a per­for­mance at the Moon Bar rooftop, gun­men opened fire on the ve­hi­cle trans­port­ing Em­manuel and mem­bers of his en­tourage, wound­ing the ve­hi­cle’s oc­cu­pants. 

The St Maarten Po­lice Force re­port­ed that Em­manuel was in crit­i­cal con­di­tion at a hos­pi­tal in the Dutch over­seas ter­ri­to­ry. A woman and three men who were al­so in the ve­hi­cle are in se­ri­ous but sta­ble con­di­tion.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Plumpy Boss’ moth­er, San­dra “War­rior Princess” Em­manuel, con­firmed her son was in a med­ical­ly in­duced co­ma due to a bul­let lodged in the cen­tre of his brain. She ex­pressed grat­i­tude to the event pro­mot­er for cov­er­ing the med­ical ex­pens­es thus far but voiced her dis­ap­point­ment with the health­care sys­tem in St Maarten. 

“They say be­cause he is not a cit­i­zen and has no med­ical in­sur­ance, he can­not be trans­ferred to France for emer­gency surgery,” she ex­plained.

Em­manuel added that arrange­ments were now be­ing made to trans­fer her son to a hos­pi­tal in Trinidad, though she was un­sure of the ex­act tim­ing.

“My son is in dire need of emer­gency surgery,” she said. Em­manuel said she ex­pects jus­tice for her son, even if it was from God. 

Plumpy Boss re­mains se­dat­ed and sta­bilised as prepa­ra­tions for his air trav­el con­tin­ue.