The three bandits who were shot dead on Friday evening have now been identified.
The three men who had a firearm were shot dead by the police during a gun battle at a house they had invaded in Section ‘B’ Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara (ECD). During the exchange of fire a policeman was also wounded.
According to a statement from the Police Public Relations Office yesterday, the three men had earlier that same night committed robberies at Enmore and at Haslington New Scheme, also on the East Coast.
Early yesterday morning relatives of two of the men went to the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary where they identified them. The two have been identified as eighteen year-old Kwesi Lewis of 154 Friendship, ECD and twenty year-old Aubrey Glasgow of Vigilance South. The third man according to the police has been identified as Alleyne, called ‘Coolie Boy’ from Buxton. His first name, the statement said, was as yet unconfirmed.
The police went on to say that the men had been involved in a number of armed robberies on the East Coast Demerara, and that ‘Coolie Boy’ had been wanted pending investigations into a murder.
This newspaper spoke to the mothers of Lewis and Glasgow at the Vigilance Police Station after they said they had just finished giving statements to the police. Lewis’s mother, Jennifer Roberts, told this newspaper that she heard her son had been shot and killed on Friday evening and she immediately went down to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
However, by the time she reached there the bodies had already been removed to the mortuary, so she returned home. She went back to the mortuary early yesterday where she identified her son; she said she saw at least two gunshot wounds on his body and one of his arms was disfigured.
The last time she saw her son, she said, was around 7.30 pm on Friday when he left home well dressed saying he was going to a party in Victoria. She admitted that he had had a minor incident with the police in the past, but nothing of a serious nature.
Aubrey Glasgow’s mother, Sharon Headley, said she too had learnt of the shooting the same night but had been unable to confirm it until yesterday morning. “Aubrey big brother come and seh he hear that he [Aubrey] get shoot, so I run down to the hospital but I didn’t get to see anything; is till this morning [yesterday morning] I go and I get to see me son body,” the dead man’s mother told this newspaper. She said that her son had not lived with her but with his grandmother, who told her he had left his home around 6.30 pm on Friday also saying he was going to a party with friends at Victoria.
The police said yesterday that around 9.10 pm the bandits entered the yard of Lakenauth, 38, a salesman, who was cleaning up after a religious function. He was confronted by one of the men who was armed with a handgun and who struck him in the face. Mala, his wife, told Stabroek News on Friday that she and her relatives were relaxing after the function, and that she was sitting on a chair close to the front door, while her mother, husband and other relatives were seated inside the house. She put the time of entry about 9.30 pm.
Mala said she was engrossed in conversation, when suddenly someone hit her on the head and commanded her to “get into the house.” A gun was placed to her head, she said, and she was shoved into the house by the bandit. By this time, the other two robbers brandishing their weapons, had begun threatening her relatives and demanding money and jewellery. She recalled telling them they had no money and jewellery since they had hosted a religious function only that morning. She said it was at this point that she managed to grab her cellular phone, run to the washroom, and lock herself in. The woman said she contacted a few of her friends in the neighbourhood who immediately called the police.
Residents said the police responded within minutes and Mala attested to this, noting that the bandits were still in the house with them when the lawmen arrived. She said that by then her relatives had started handing over money to the bandits. Police, on arriving on the scene, cordoned off the area. Realising they were cornered, the bandits became desperate to escape and ignored Mala and her relatives, while hitting down almost everything in their way. Mala said she picked up her three-year-old son, while her husband Lakenauth assisted her mother and they all fled from the house. Once the family had escaped, police moved in on the bandits, confronting two of them in a bathroom and shooting both of them dead. The third bandit ran out the house in an escape bid, but was brought down by a bullet as he crossed the bridge. According to the police, during the shot-out Police Lance Corporal 14861 Shawn Hosannah received a graze wound to his right ankle.
The police release said too that Lakenauth’s seven-year-old son did not manage to escape from the house with the others, but was rescued unharmed later.
The statement also said the bandits had ransacked the house and had packed up electronic equipment to take away, including a VCR, DVD player, video tapes, CDs and a mini-stereo set. It was thought that the DVD player had been taken earlier in the night from a mini-bus driver, Dharamjit, 30, who was attacked and robbed at his home in Haslington New Scheme, ECD. According to the police, Dharmjit and his wife were on the verandah of their home when the three armed men entered and held them at gunpoint. They were taken into the house where they were assaulted and robbed of an undisclosed sum of money, a cell phone and a DVD player. The cell phone, the police said, was recovered from the body of one of the bandits.
The release said that earlier that same night too, the three men had also attacked and robbed porter Kester Williams, 21, on the road at Enmore, ECD. He was stabbed in the right side of his chest and robbed of a cell phone and $5,000. He is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
