…during shootout at city gold dealership
…body of suspected bandit found hours after in Tucville

A GOLD MINER was shot dead in a botched robbery outside El Dorado Trading Company in DaSilva Street, Newtown Kitty, Georgetown, on Monday morning and a man suspected to be one of the bandits was later found shot to death at Tucville.

The gold miner has been identified as 44-year old Deon Stoll, called “Mow” of Charity, Essequibo Cost, Essequibo and Barima Avenue, Bel Air Park. He succumbed to his injuries at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Injured are: Stoll’s driver Clayton Powley, 43, of 326 Section ‘C’ Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown who is hospitalised along with El Dorado Trading security guard, Rory Deegs, who was shot twice and is in a stable condition at a private city hospital.

Police later discovered the body of a man, suspected to be one of the bandits, who had escaped from the scene, with two gunshot wounds to the chest, abandoned at Tucville Squatting Area. He has been identified as 18-year-old Olijah Chesney, of Lot 562 D Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown. He was also identified as a member of the Guyana Defence Force.

The body is currently at the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary awaiting a post mortem examination. El Dorado Trading is regarded as a top private gold dealership here and the business would commence operations at 08:00 hours, Monday to Friday. This was the first time such a robbery occurred at the business site.

Enquiries revealed that Stoll and his driver had earlier visited a business place on Sheriff Street and did a business transaction where they collected a sum of cash, after which they proceeded, in Toyota Carina 212 car, PPP 7227, to El Dorado Trading at 63 Da Silva Street Kitty to conduct another transaction.

They were trailed by the bandits’ car. As soon as the gold miner pulled over at the gold dealership, the bandits’ car also pulled up and the two bandits exited the car wearing caps with their faces partially covered with handkerchiefs.
One armed with a knife approached the driver while the other approached the businessman with a handgun.

Reports further indicated that the robber with the knife ordered the driver to get out the car while the other bandit told the businessman, not to draw his firearm.
The driver then pushed the car door towards the bandit with the knife and came out of the car and was pushing the bandit away. As a result the bandit with the gun shot the driver to his right hand between the elbow and shoulder.

The businessman then drew his licensed firearm and he and the bandit with the gun had a shootout. However, the businessman received a gunshot injury to the right side pelvic. The bandit who was also shot then ran away and joined the car with his accomplice, and they made good their escape.

Meanwhile, the security guard of El Dorado Trading, 40-year-old Rory Deegs, who was armed with a pistol, opened the gate of the business to see what was going on, when it was alleged that the businessman, in a panic, discharged two rounds into his direction and he received injuries to the right hand.

Surveillance Footage
Meanwhile, surveillance footage shows the businessman’s car driving on Da Silva Street towards the gold dealership with the gunmen’s car, a white Toyota Carina 212, tailing behind. Just as Stoll’s vehicle entered onto the gold dealership’s driveway, the robbers stopped behind and two men jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the driver and passenger doors simultaneously, resulting in a scuffle.

During the scuffle to enter the driver’s seat to grab something, Stoll was seen on surveillance footage returning fire, after he was shot, and his driver wrestling one of the robbers.
From the surveillance footage, it appeared as if the bandits were not successful in robbing the gold dealer or the driver of any of their valuables.

During the bandits’ escape to their waiting car, it also appeared that one of them was shot by the gold miner, since he fell on the roadway and scrambled to get back to the getaway vehicle.

The victims were immediately rushed to the hospital where Stoll subsequently died. Reports indicated that the miner recently travelled out of the interior where he operates. Police investigators were called to the scene and cordoned off the area for over an hour as they began their investigation.

One of the windows of a car that was parked near to Eldorado Trading was shattered during the attack. Investigators believe that the gold miner might have been followed by the assailants to the trading company where he would usually sell his gold whenever he came out of the interior region.