A BLOCK 22 Linden family is the latest victim of armed robbery when a lone gunman attacked them on Tuesday morning, but was subsequently caught and handed over to the police.

The Bethune family of Lot 330 Block 22, Wismar, Linden, managed to retrieve some of the items that were taken by the suspect, who apparently made more than one trips to the house. These include two small speaker boxes worth $13,000 belonging to Gary Bethune; one Acer laptop worth $120,000, belonging to Shemeka Bethune; one I Phone 5S worth $30,000, belonging to Dereck Bethune and one Samsung J2 phone worth 33,000, belonging to Shemroy Bethune.

On his last attempt to steal some of the items at around 3:45hrs, Shemroy Bethune woke up to use the washroom and saw the suspect in the living room and yelled ‘thief’.

His shout woke the other family members and at this time, the suspect fled the house but was pursued by the family members, neighbours and other public-spirited persons. The suspect was in possession of a nine MM semi-automatic pistol with five live rounds. One of the family members attempted to take the firearm away, but the suspect put up a fight and he was accidentally shot in his left knee.

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. The police was called and the suspect was subsequently taken to the Linden Hospital Complex where he was admitted, treated for a single gunshot wound and subsequently discharged.

He is now in police custody and is expected to be charged soon for robbery under arms. This publication understands that the suspect is a known criminal element in the Wismar community.

Commander of ‘E’ Division, Linden Lord, said that the incident is unfortunate since robbery under arms is virtually non-existent in Linden. He said that ranks will continue to work assiduously in weeding out criminal elements in the division, so as to restore the confidence of residents, particularly on the Wismar shore.