All posts by Street Talk

Innocent Bystander Shot in Shooting Attempt on Ricky (Cab #153)

An innocent bystander was shot repeatedly in Bocas del Toro in a drug deal gone bad.  The intended target was Ricky, driver of taxi 153 a known drug dealer among many other things.

Adam has repeatedly been reported dead, but, in the words of Samuel Clements, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Although the shooter and Ricky are known, there has been no arrests.

Although most of you probably don’t know me I suspect a fair share know OF me. You see Im the guy that got gunned down next to Barco on February 28th. The purpose of this post is in the time since I have been back from having the bullets removed, I have heard a breath taking variety of stories from people about that night, and none of them have been true. My personal favorite was that I was dead. (The person who said it didn’t realize they were talking to the guy they were talking about). So, in the spirit of this group Im going to lay down the true chain of events from that night that way maybe everyone can get on the same page. What Im going to write is as close to legal fact as possible, in fact Im basically going to mirror, in condensed form, my legal declaration of that night’s events.

First a few things I should get out of the way.
1. I was not involved in the confrontation that led to the shooting and I didn’t jump into anything, I was walking home when I was hit with the bullets.
2. I was not then, nor am I now friends with any of the other parties involved in this debacle.
3. Obviously, Im not dead.
4. I was not the intended target, in fact the shooter knows he hit a gringo, but still doesn’t know which gringo he hit.
5. Both parties to the shooting are still free running around town.
6. I had been in Bocas 5 days when it happened, that not enough time to go making enemies.

At 3:30 am on the morning of February 28th I was leaving the Aqua Lounge having lent a hand with their security there. I got in the water taxi with one of the other bouncers and as the boat was about to pull away from the dock Ricky (the Taxi driver with car number 153) half fell half dove into the boat with a friend of his. I didn’t think anything of it at the time as I was tired and wanted sleep, but I should have because I already had a few warning signs earlier in the evening. The boat crossed the channel to Colon in a slightly wet but otherwise uneventful crossing. Everyone else had prepaid their boat crossing but me. I was in jeans and they were slightly damn from the drizzle and I didn’t feel like trying to fish out a dollar until I was standing up. We docked on the other side and everyone jumped out and I stood there to pay to boat driver while the other 3 shuttled down that dark hallway next to Barco towards the street. I paid and began my walk as well. As I got about 10 feet from the end of the hallway I was startled to hear a loud booming sound getting closer to me quickly. I looked up in time to see Ricky, and his friend, charging towards me at a dead sprint with looks of sheer terror on both faces. The friend was literally trying to climb past Ricky to get in front of him. About a half second later Ricky collided with me at said speed and sent me flying into the concrete wall to my right and my head was the first thing to hit.

I assumed at this point, as I grabbed my head to protect it, some people were after Ricky as he had mentioned to me earlier that night when I asked him for them millionth time to stop dealing drugs in Aqua that he had “Fucked a guy over last night, and they are waiting for me” (remember that warning sign I mentioned?) In the split second before the first bullet hit me I figured some guys were going to chase him to the end of the dock and I stayed tucked as far against the wall as possible because I wasn’t about to get involved. Then the gunfire started. Round 1 felt like it hit me in the arm, but in reality it grazed my arm, hit the wall and sent concrete blasting into my elbow. This impact of the stone was what I thought was a bullet hitting me. Round two slammed into my left hip but I didn’t feel a thing. Round three followed and hit my left hip as well fracturing my pelvis. Round 4 actually hit me in the spine just above my tail bone as I had been turned by the previous two bullets without realizing it. I felt this one. It bounced off my spine and tore down through my left thigh partially severing my sciatic nerve, which is the main nerve that controls your leg.

As I immediately feel over the shooting stopped, and I looked up in not the worst pain I have ever felt but close to it to see about 20 people standing on the street at the end of the dock pulling out cell phones and turning on the cameras. No one came down the dock either direction. As I laid there bellowing in pain the police came running down the street after about 30 seconds with their guns drawn. The rest becomes a long winded medical tale full of horror and bizarre stuff. The entire chain of events from me being run over by a small out of control dinosaur to me falling to the ground riddled with bullets was about 5 seconds.

Now that all of you who took the time to read the post in its entirety know what actually happened, feel free to say hi to me. I drive a big black suburban with black wheels and a large brush guard on the front. I pretty much go everywhere with it since walking is problematic due to the paralysis.

Adam Ledford

Dutch Girls Missing in Boquette – Bodies May Have Been Found

BBC reports that the bodies two Dutch girls, missing since April, may have been found in Bocas del Toro.

We hope this brings closure to the families.

Update: June 24

Lisanne Froon’s body has been found and identified by DNA matching to parents.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/missing-dutch-tourists-bodies-found-panama-24271572

http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/06/23/remains-found-panama-lisanne-froons/

Abduction in Tierra Oscura

Stig Pedersen was attacked by six armed masked men at his home in Tierra Oscura at approximately 9 pm on June 21.  He was struck in the head and driven off in his own boat a white T Top with “Puff” written on the bow.  The boat has a 75 HP four stroke outboard.

Gary Pope notified the Bocas police who responded that a report had to be made in person.  The boat ride from Tierra Oscura to Bocas town is about half an hour to forty five minutes.

The police located Stig in his boat at Piti Creek and transported him to  to the  hospital in Almirante and soon joined by his wife and mother in law.  He was subsequently transferred to a hospital in David by ambulance.

Stig had notified friends before the incident that one his neighbors had threatened to kill him in retalation for denuncias Stig had filed which had resulted in the incarceration of the neighbor.

As of the time of this writing,  9:38 AM, Monday June 23 there is an effort underway to obtain six pints of Type A RH positive blood in order that he may undergo surgery.

Two suspects have been apprehended.

June 23

Right now they are preparing Stig for the transfer to hospital Chiriqui. He cannot move one side of his body and has some smaller and one bigger blood clots  in his brain. To operate him serveral specialists have to be at there during the operation, Stig is talking but it is difficult to understand him. We need 6 pints of blood type A positive. and a lot of positive energy.

 I spoke to Maribel.
She only could identify one of the people who attacked Stig. They did not harm her as they told her she is Panamanian and therefore has nothing to do with this it. The attack was planned for Stig. The took a lot of money and cards
. There was money taken out of the account yesterday, now let us hope the bank had a camera in the ATM machine.  All credit cards were canceled yesterday, but Stigs account with Banco Scotia was only closed this morning. Maribel said that she did not see the neighbor but that he told her Dad once that he wants to hurt Stig.