Ex-leader of Turks and Caicos wounded in armed robbery

A former leader of the Turks and Caicos Islands was shot and wounded during an apparent robbery near a strip of tourist hotels, police in the British territory said Monday.

Galmo Williams, a prominent businessman and former premier in the islands southeast of the Bahamas, was walking late Sunday night near Grace Bay when he was approached by three masked men who demanded his wallet, said Constable Kevin Clarke, a spokesman for the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

The 57-year-old Williams told police he turned over his wallet but that one of the men shot him anyway. He was wounded in the left leg and hospitalized for treatment, Clarke said. His condition was not immediately available and the former premier could not immediately be reached for comment.

Investigators were trying to determine if it was a random attack.

Williams served for less than five months as premier in 2009 after Premier Michael Misick was forced to step down amid corruption allegations involving the misuse of public land and finances that prompted the British government to suspend the territory’s self-government and appoint a governor. Misick’s corruption trial is ongoing.