A 23-year-old Laing Avenue, Charlestown resident who traded bullets with law enforcement officials, minutes after he (suspect) and an accomplice robbed a Bourda Market vendor of $400,000 cash as he (victim) was about to enter his Pike Street Kitty yard, is under police guard, in a stable condition at the G.P.H.C., nursing a gunshot wound to his right foot
In a release police said enquiries disclosed that about 14:30hr on Friday the 56-yer-old vendor left his place of business and proceeded to his home in a taxi. He arrived about 14:45 hr and was about to open his gate when the suspects, one armed with a handgun, approached on a motor cycle, pounced and relieved him of the cash mentioned from his person and made good their escape, east along Pike Street, Kitty.
The matter was reported and within minutes, police ranks on a mobile patrol responded and confronted the bandits, who discharged several rounds at the officers. The police returned fire hitting one of the suspects who fell. His accomplice managed to escape. Acting on information the ranks immediately proceeded to a house in Duncan Street, Kitty, where they conducted a search and found an unlicensed revolver with two live rounds and one spent shell. Four males and two females who were in the house have been taken into custody. One of the females is said to be the girlfriend of the wounded suspect.
The police have recovered a part of the stolen cash from the suspect who tried to dispose of same after being shot. Investigations are in progress.