An armed robber who was beaten by residents of Block 22 Wismar after he broke into a house within the wee hours of Tuesday, has succumbed to his injuries.

Dead is 37-years-old Leonard Moriah of Silver Town, Wismar. He died around 18:00 hrs on Tuesday at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC).  A post mortem examination conducted on Wednesday by government pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh revealed that he died from blunt trauma to the head and abdomen.

Commander of E’ Division, Linden Lord related that the suspect was handed over
to the police and was nursing a gunshot wound to his left knee after he was
accidentally shot during a shuffle, when one of the victims tried to disarm him.

He was rushed to LHC where he was admitted, treated and subsequently
discharged.The bandit was then taken into police custody at the Mackenzie Police Station but Lord said that the suspect suffered a relapse in the late afternoon hours after crying out for pain. Ranks took him back to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In 2013, Moriah was placed before the courts on armed robbery charges as well as for the possession of a firearm without being the holder of a license.

Lord strongly condemned vigilante beatings and urged residents to let the police do their job. “It is not the right thing to take the law into your own hands, let the law take its course, we won’t support these actions by members of the public,” Lord said the suspect did not give a name of who beat him.

A video, however, has been circulating on social media which shows the suspect tied up while persons kicked and dealt him several blows about his body. He was begging for his life.

It is alleged that on Tuesday morning around 03:45 hrs, Moriah entered the home of
the Bethune family of Lot 330 Block 22, Wismar Linden and managed to cart off
two small speaker boxes worth $13,000, one Acer laptop worth$120, 000, one I
Phone 5S worth $30, 000 and one Samsung J2 worth 33,000.

On his last attempt to steal additional items, Shemroy Bethune woke up to use the washroom and saw the suspect in the living room and yelled ‘thief’.

This alerted the other family members and during  that time, the suspect fled the house but was chased after by the family members, neighbours and other public spirited persons.

He was in possession of a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with five live rounds. Family
members also retrieved from the suspect, a black bag containing a nipper, two
knives, a wire stripper, a pair of green gloves and a face mask.