…two suspects in custody

By Nafeeza Yahya
A 33-year-old father of two and his pregnant relative are nursing injuries after they were attacked by armed bandits on Wednesday evening.

The bandits also threatened to kill the man’s teenage daughter. At approximately 20:00hrs, five men, armed with guns and cutlasses, attacked the proprietor of the Prakash Supermarket at Lot 37, Number 19 Village, before escaping with approximately $700,000 in cash, $50,000 worth of phone cards, and several items belonging to the customers. The bandits also carted off GYD$15,000, US$1000, two gold chains valued at $230,000 and a ring worth $45,000 from the pregnant relative who was spending time at the family.

According to the proprietor, Dewan Ramdeo, he was inside the shop with his daughter when two of the men entered and held them at gunpoint, demanding they hand over cash and valuables. “I see an individual with a mask on coming in with a gun and shout everyone get down! Get down! This is a stick-up, as he was coming my daughter try to run to safety, then he shout ‘don’t run me gon shoot you’. So I called her back and try to comply”.

He explained that the customers, who were outside of the shop, were forcefully brought into the shop and placed to lie on the floor where they were beaten and trampled on. Ramdeo’s daughter was also assaulted. He went on to explain that any attempt made by anyone to raise their head was met with kicks about their bodies. The businessman recalled that during the ordeal there was a window of opportunity to escape but he was grabbed by one of the bandits who tore his tee shirt off as he ran for his life. “Two of the bandits were standing over the customers, and I heard my family was upstairs screaming and her son that was lying next to me begging them to not beat her, that she is pregnant, but they still continued …I see the door was clear, so I tried to run but one of them quickly grabbed me, but my shirt tear off and I continue running to the street where I see one of my neighbours.”

Meanwhile, 39-year-old Shamdeo Inderjeet, the pregnant relative of Bloomfield Village, was spending a few days at the Number 19 residence with her two teenage children when she was brutally beaten. In recounting the traumatic experience, Inderjeet said she was unwell, so she retired to the upper flat late in the afternoon. She stated that she fell asleep and was awakened by a loud sound coming from the door, then a voice instructing her to get up. “I saw a young person masked who had a cutlass in his hand. I asked what happened and was about to get up when he hit me with the cutlass in the middle of my head. I fell over the bed and just run to catch the bathroom. When I push the door he hit me another time in my head with the cutlass. I feel like blood run down and I fall in the bathroom. I still try to lock the door but was overpowered. He then stripped out my clothes, held on to my hair and kicked me about my body”.

She related that while being beaten, she questioned what she was being beaten for, since she was unclear whether the man was a bandit. However, the man only proceeded to drag her by the hair to the room where he demanded cash and continued beating her until she lost consciousness. “He continue to broadside my head and hand and then carry me to the living room and he still continue to beat me with his hands. He grabbed a gun from his partner and beat me behind my neck; during that time I blackout”.

Meanwhile, Commander of ‘B’ Division, Paul Langevine, told the Guyana Chronicle that two persons have been arrested as the investigation continues.