A 42-year- old money-changer was shot and overpowered by three men who took away in excess of $500,000 from him at dawn on Saturday morning close to the Suriname ‘backtrack’ entrance on the Corentyne.

Mohamed Abdel Razack , popularly known as ‘Azim’ related that around 05:35 hrs on Saturday, he went to ply his trade, as he has been doing for the past two years, in front of the backtrack entrance next to Boyo’s Beer Garden in Corriverton, Corentyne.

He was sitting on a concrete rail when three men rushed up to him and grabbed him by the leg, causing him to fall on his back to the ground.

The men, who were armed with two handguns, proceeded to hit him in the head as they tried to relieve him of the money he had in his possession. As he tried to fight the men off, they pointed a gun at his face and he believed that the men were going to shoot him, but he wrestled with them. They eventually fired a shot at him which struck him in the leg.

“ Them keep hit me in the head and me start to get dizzy but me still a fight back cause them try fuh tek the money out me pocket and them point the gun to me and me twitch he hand and the shot fire off or he would a shoot me in me head,” Razack said.

The gun-toting men relieved him of $200,000 in local currency, US$100 and a little over SRD$8000; all totalling over half a million Guyana dollars. Razack immediately flagged down a passing car and went to the nearby police station to alert officials of what transpired.

The police returned with him but were unable to locate the men. It was until the police returned to the station from the field to get an official report that Razack realised he was shot.

“After we search them backstreets and nah find nobody we come back at the station, then like me blood cool down and me feel wan burning on me left leg and when me watch down, me see the bullet hole,” he related.

He was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where he was treated and sent away, since the bullet exited the left thigh.

Police have taken a statement and are on the hunt for the three bandits.
Money changers have been the target of gunmen in recent months and the businessmen are seen as easy targets of bandits since they carry large wads of cash which they use to transact business with members of the public.