Police at Charity on the Essequibo Coast have arrested a suspected bandit following a robbery in which a young woman was shot on Monday night.

Reports are that 18-year-old Feida Mohamed of Charity Public Road, Pomeroon is currently hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Suddie Public Hospital nursing a gunshot injury to her neck. She was admitted on Monday night after she was shot by one of two armed men during the robbery at her mother’s business.

According to the owner of M Mohammed Supermarket, Zareed Mohamed, her business place was robbed of an undisclosed amount of cash around 19:20 hours on Monday by two men. The businesswoman said the suspects are known persons in the area and they were caught on camera during the act.

According to Mohamed, one of the suspects went into her supermarket pretending to be a customer as he purchased a bottle of water.He then placed a small gun to the neck of her daughter. Another bandit then walked in and held another handgun to a female customer and took her along with other customers upstairs where he wrapped duct tape to their mouths and plastic straps on their hands.  The thieves then went downstairs and allegedly fired a shot at the businesswoman’s daughter as they robbed the business.

“It happened so fast we didn’t even get time, my small daughter saw everything and started to scream and jumped from the upstairs to the bottom, my other daughter started to scream so she could alert me and then is when she was shot,”the businesswoman said.

One of the businesswoman’s daughters said that she and another sister were locked in a toilet during the ordeal.

Police have since apprehended one of the suspects while his accomplice remains on the run.

The family said they are still assessing the situation to determine their losses as they noted that the bandits took away the day’s earnings from the cash register.