-- “Neighbours call for the police but
the phone was busy. They
keep calling and the phone always
busy,”
Police in Berbice are on the hunt for a gang who they believe
is responsible for a spate of robberies on the Corentyne.
Sookranie-ob-Albion-robbed
Chandradai-battered-robbery
Crime-significantly-down
Bibi-Satar-gun-butted
Greene_crimes-05
Haseeb-robbed-Belvedere
Rose_Hall_attacked
Ganesh-Ramkellawan-dead
The gang struck at Chesney Front, Albion, on Sunday night, robbing
the proprietors of a grocery and off-licence liquor store of more
than $2M in cash and an undisclosed amount in gold jewellery.
Residents believe that the police could have responded quicker to
confront the bandits, had it not been for a busy telephone at the
nearby Albion Police Station.
Yesterday, Narsamah Mangru, who operates the business with
her husband Ramotar, called ‘Bull’, said that the bandits
struck just before seven o’clock on Sunday night.
She said that she was in her shop, while her husband and some
customers were near the front gate when the bandits, who had their
faces covered with rags, attacked.
They ordered the customers and Ramotar to lie face down on the
ground and as three of the robbers stood guard with their guns,
three more entered the shop and grabbed the unsuspecting business
woman, demanding cash and jewellery.
Realising that she was at the mercy of the bandits, she raised an
alarm.
“Me mek one holler, ‘Oh god this is thief’,” the woman
related to Kaieteur News.
Her son, Shamnarine Mangru, and his wife were also downstairs and
heard her screams but her son had no time to elude the bandits.
His wife however managed to hide herself in a bathroom unknown to
the bandits.
Narsamah Mangru told this newspaper that after beating her son in
his head with guns, the men grabbed $500,000, which was in a
drawer in the shop.
“I had on three (gold) bangles, them go away with that too and
pull off me chain. My son had on a band worth $400,000, they took
that and he chain,” Mangru stated.
While one of the bandits remained in the shop with her, two others
took her son upstairs where they demanded more money.
There they found another $600,000, two more gold chains and a
bangle. They also demanded the young man’s licenced firearm,
discharging a round in the process, which fortunately missed the
intended target. They did not get the weapon.
Apparently realising that time was running out, the two bandits
returned downstairs with Mangru’s son, using expletives all the
time demanding more cash and other valuables.
“They threaten fuh shoot we if we only raise we head,” the
businesswoman told Kaieteur News.
She said that before the bandits left they also took with them $1M
which she had set aside to pay a local beverage company for stocks
they had supplied.
According to Mangru, after the bandits left she was informed that
several persons had seen when the attack commenced and tried
contacting the Albion Police Station.
“Neighbours call for the police but the phone was busy. They
keep calling and the phone always busy,” she said.
Up to yesterday, her husband and son were seeking medical
attention for their injuries.
This is the first time that the family has had an encounter with
bandits and the incident has left them traumatised.
Several other residents in the area have expressed fear for their
lives despite the heightened police patrols in Berbice.
“Just as night reach we in fear. This place get like Buxton and
Lusignan. People got to close up early. This is a sugar area and
people wives got to get up and cook early and that is de time when
de bandits could attack. As soon as you open up so,” one
resident told this newspaper.
The residents said that the attackers appeared to be young men,
who are no more than 25-years-old. Senior police officials in the
district have assured that all the stops will be pulled out to
apprehend the suspects and bring the gang to justice.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
