Shooting victim Antoine Tuzo told yesterday how he rushed to save his fiancée after hearing gunfire outside Western Stars Sports Club — and ended up taking a bullet himself.

The father-of-one didn't even realise he had been shot in the right arm on Sunday evening until a friend told him seconds later that he was bleeding.

Truck driver Mr. Tuzo, who was interviewed in his hospital bed yesterday, said he was standing outside the door of the club on St. John's Road, Pembroke, just before midnight when he heard the shots.

"I didn't see anything," the 39-year-old told The Royal Gazette. "I just heard the shot just ring out from out of the dark, out of the blue. It sounded like a damn cannon.

"The first one, I didn't really think nothing of it, but then when I heard the next two, three, I covered my fiancée and I pushed her inside the club.

"Once I realised I had been shot, blood was spurting out everywhere. Everything after that became kind of blurry.

"My fiancée went and got the car and my brethren took my shirt off to stop the blood rushing down and took me out to the car. It made no sense waiting for an ambulance because I was bleeding profusely."

The bullet went into the back of his arm, shattering the bone, before coming out the other side and grazing his stomach.

"I didn't even know I had been struck," said Mr. Tuzo, who works for Phoenix Stores. "It was weird, really weird, until I was consciously made to know that I was bleeding and then there was that burning sensation and everything else."

No one has been arrested yet in connection with Sunday's double shooting, which also left a 17-year-old schoolgirl in intensive care with gun wounds. Police described her as in a critical condition on Monday; by yesterday afternoon she was stable on a general ward.

Mr. Tuzo, of Pembroke, said he didn't realise anyone else had been shot until he saw her in the bed next to his in the emergency room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"I was just hoping and praying that the little girl was all right," he said. "I saw her now. I saw her smiling. I bumped into her when she was coming out of the elevator."

Both victims were celebrating Dandy Town football team's Premier Division win when, according to Police, gunmen riding past on a bike "fired indiscriminately" in the direction of the club.

Mr. Tuzo, who has an eight-year-old son living in the US, said: "There is no way I was targeted. I'm a peaceful, humble person. I know a lot of people and a lot of people know me. I'm a God-fearing person. I show people love; I believe if you show people love, then you get love back.

"If there is any gang I'm affiliated with, it's God's gang. I truly feel that it was God that was watching over me."

He said he was in severe pain from his injuries and didn't know when he would be released from hospital, but added: "I don't hate or dislike the people who may have done this. Hopefully, if they know me, they know I'm a cool person."

He said spiralling gun and gang violence could be attributed in part to youngsters growing up in single-parent families, ending up on the streets and turning to drugs.

Mr. Tuzo said he was speaking from first-hand experience as he served time in Westgate in the 1990s for possession of cocaine but has led a crime-free life since his release.

"I made a promise to myself that I never want to see a courtroom again. I have been out for a decade and a year and that's exactly what I've done."

He said he had little faith in Police and Government to deal with escalating crime and urged the community to help itself. "You know what the word for this is? It's ethnic cleansing; it's genocide.

"[But] it's my own black people and we are doing it to ourselves. I don't see it happening in the white neighbourhoods. It's happening to black people. It's my black sisters and brothers that are suffering."

Mr. Tuzo is goalkeeping coach for Dandy Town and has played for the Hornets, as well as Devonshire Colts, Devonshire Cougars and Boulevard Blazers.

He also runs Spanish Town International sound system and was DJing at Western Stars on Sunday evening.

The double shooting at the club marked the end of a bloody Easter weekend.

Kimwandae Walker, 35, was fatally shot in front of his children outside Victor Scott Primary School on Good Friday, while a fight at the Royal Artillery Association (RAA) club in St George's the next evening saw an 18-year-old man shot and a 19-year-old man stabbed.

Saturday's gun victim was stable on a general ward at KEMH yesterday and the stabbing victim had been released.

Jakai Harford, the 27-year-old shot on Mission Lane, Pembroke, on March 27, remains in hospital on a general ward.

Police have arrested two men in connection with Mr. Walker's murder and two in connection with the RAA incident. Two men questioned about the 4 a.m. attack on Mr. Harford have been released on bail.

The Department of Education yesterday urged parents to do all they could to ensure the safety of children over the Easter break in the wake of the "senseless gun violence".

A statement said: "We want to reassure parents that we are doing all that we can to ensure the safety, security and emotional health of all students and particularly those who have been affected by the unfortunate gun violence which continues to plague our Island."

Counsellors will be available at all schools for students when they return to class on Monday (April 12).

l Anyone who was in the area of Western Stars Sports Club around the time of the incident should call Police on 299-8115 or the independent 24-hour confidential Crime Stoppers Bermuda hot line on 800-8477.