Relative: ‘… they tried to finish her off’
Attackers changed bloodied clothing in store
Dhanwantie Phulchand, a proprietor in the City Mall who was robbed, chopped and battered on Saturday afternoon, was in a stable condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday.
Police have since taken a male and female into custody. The two, according to reports, are members of a gang that hang out and dance in front of the mall’s Regent Street entrance.
Phulchand, who operates Rishma’s Fashion, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday evening. Initial reports said that sometime before 5 pm the woman was alone in her store when the man walked in and demanded cash and items. She refused and the man began chopping her about the body.
When this newspaper visited the City Mall that afternoon, blood was splattered across the floor of the boutique. Other store owners said that the suspect is a known character and had previously attacked another person at the mall.
Stabroek News had reported that Phulchand’s attacker was formerly employed by her. However, relatives yesterday said that the man was never the woman’s employee but previously worked in another of the mall’s stores.
“She wasn’t chopped alone,” one of Phulchand’s relatives said yesterday. “She was beaten too…they tried to finish her off.”
Relatives said that they’d been informed that Phulchand was in a stable condition. The woman’s head was heavily bandaged and she complained of constant pain when Stabroek News visited her shortly after 12 pm yesterday. She is currently a patient of the hospital’s High Dependency Unit (HDU).
Phulchand, relatives said, was attacked by both the male and female. While one chopped her, the other battered her. After the attack, they said, the duo changed their bloody clothing in Phulchand’s store.
“Imagine,” another relative said, “after they finish with her they change their clothes right in the store. They took new clothes from her store and left their dirty ones there. Those are in police custody as well.”
Security, distressed relatives pointed out, was practically non-existent at the City Mall. Phulchand’s attacker simply walked in and then calmly left as if nothing had happened.
Dhanwantie Phulchand
This, Phulchand’s relatives pointed out, leaves all business owners and employees at great risk. The problem, they stressed, needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Two of the mall’s stores have entrances on Camp Street and there are two or three other entrances on Regent Street. None of these entrances are manned by a security guard and there are no bag bays in the mall. A person is allowed to walk freely through the establishment and can take any item inside.
Phulchand’s incident, relatives said, has left many of the mall’s proprietors and their employees alarmed.
Can’t believe there was no security at the Mall , that’s guyana people , how in the world there’re no security there ?
How long will this incompetence continue ? Until GT becomes another Jones town or until the ppp leave office ?
Hope she recovers fast .
Having guards there is not all, will they be ARMED GUARDS or just guards that have on the security clothes & have no weapons & will there be one at each doors or more than one at each doors?
My advice to all the vendors that occupy a space and pay rent in this Mall, is to come together as a COLLECTIVE UNIT, and close your doors and protest the grossly inadequate security the owners of this establishment is providing to you and its patrons. They are being penny wise and pound foolish by failing to provide adequate security to both shoppers and vendors – given the high crime rate in that country. How many more of these brazen and vicious incidents will it take for them to provide ARMED security guards and CCTV cameras to cover the inside and entrances to the mall?
I am waiting to see what sentence the courts will hand down for this atempted murder.These attackers must be ‘roughed up’ and given life with hard labor.
When they lady was being beaten–where was everyone else in the Mall? That is a conifined place. Why did the other ppl in the Mall including store owners not lock down the Mall and catch the two thieves? No one complaining that ppl listened as a lone woman was beaten in HER OWN PLACE??? The thieves had time to change their clothes and no one intervened!! Those stores are small shops and have small doorways–you mean to tell me that no one could go and block off the doorway? Everyone screamed for a Thief –Gavin Paul when he was left alone yet no one is saying–WHERE IS THE HUMANITY WHEN AN INNOCENT WOMAN WAS BEING BATTERED IN HER OWN PLACE!!!!Eh Georgie?? Or you only complain for Thieves………..
are these enclosed stores concrete/wood or glass.
get well soon
We need to enforce the law. For instance, in this case we need to put these criminals behind bars, and the law should rehabilitate them by ensuring that they do some heavy labour under guard. We can pay them $30 Guyanese daily until their release back into society.
let them work and the money compensate the victims for the pain and medical cost.
I hope that Dhanwantie have a speedy recovery . It is so very sad when honest hard-working people are injured or murdered at their place of employment . Perpetrators of these crimes should be sent to prison for a very long time .