– claims ‘the devil’ took a hold of him
– Gun, live rounds and spent shells recovered in timely police intervention
BUSINESSMAN Rafeek Singh and his wife are high in praise of the Guyana Police Force for its quick and effective action which resulted in the nabbing of a man who was attempting to intrude their home and business place.Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday afternoon, Singh said he was in the lower flat of his building, where the family operates a shop, and his wife was in the upper flat of the home with their young child. She heard a strange noise coming from the zinc fence separating their property from the neighbouring property, and when she peeped over the fence from her towering landing, she observed a man using a ladder to make his way over the almost ten-foot-high fence.

Mrs Singh rushed into her home and secured herself, even as she quickly telephoned her husband in the lower flat to alert him of what was developing.

Singh told this publication that by the time he reached to the top of the stairs, the intruder, who is known to him, was already metres away from stepping onto his verandah, having reached that elevation with the use of a makeshift ladder, which the police subsequently took into their possession.

Singh said the intruder looked at him and said, “Rafeek, boy, I got to kill you,” whereupon he began pelting the intruder with some glass bottles which were at the top of the stairs, and the man retreated. He tried to escape but, unfortunately for him, the police were in the area and they cornered and apprehended him.

The police were able to find an unlicensed .45 Smith and Wesson pistol with five matching rounds along with three spent shells, which they confiscated to be used as evidence in prosecuting the man.

Singh said the man would often visit his shop as a customer, and he never appeared to be a violent person, or even someone who had access to a firearm.

Singh said that when the man saw him at the police station after the ordeal, the man was remorseful and said he believes the devil had taken a hold of him, since he is not sure what he was doing, and why he was doing what he was doing.

It is not clear how the police knew that the man had committed a crime when they cornered him. In a press statement, the police said the intruder fired a shot at the businessman, but when the businessman spoke with this newspaper, he said no shot had been fired at him or close to his premises.
By Leroy Smith