A Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo family was on Monday night beaten and robbed by three bandits, one of whom was armed with a gun, and who also attempted to burn down the home.
The bandits had apparently been observing the house, located in the Tuschen New Housing Scheme, and struck when customers who were in the small shop that the family operates, had left.
Police responded to neighbours’ telephone calls shortly after the incident but they were unable to apprehend the men.
Recounting the incident, Satwantie Devi Samaroo called ‘Latchmi’, told Stabroek News that a young man went to the shop around 7.20 pm and requested a bottle of lemonade, $40 worth of cigarettes and $20 worth of mints. She said he sat down and began consuming the beverage and then got up and appeared to be looking around.
The woman said she left her daughter, Lolita in the shop and went back into the house, as she had been cooking. (The shop is in front of the house and close to the fence.)
Samaroo said she was at the door when one of the bandits, who had been observed by a neighbour jumping over the fence, appeared from behind the shop and forced her into the house at gunpoint. She said the bandit, who was masked, had “a small black gun, like a revolver”.
As he pointed the gun at her, “he seh whey de money and the gold deh”, she recalled. Seconds later, two other men, including the “customer” from the shop who was now armed with a “chopper” and a third who wore a handkerchief over his face, kicked down the gate, which was secured with a padlock, and barged into the home.
Samaroo’s reputed husband Robindra ‘Robin’ Narine was watching television with their three children and a friend, Terrence McCollin, and they stared in shock as the men invaded the home.
Repeating their demands, one of the men hit Narine and another forced Samaroo into a room while the gunman kept watch. Samaroo said the men then started to ransack the home, unearthing some of the children’s jewellery valued at some $40,000.
The bandit with the “chopper” then went into the kitchen, grabbed the kerosene stove on which Samaroo had been cooking their dinner of squash, and threw it into the living room. As the carpet and one side of a wall-divider caught fire, as the men exited the house. The woman said she rushed to put out the fire as “the smoke deh all over the house. Me run cross the fire and tek the water, whatever me can find and throw am pun the fire.”
Meantime, the bandits used the opportunity to go into the shop and grab a box with the day’s sales before escaping.
Narine said that the incident lasted about five to seven minutes and as the bandits hit him and his wife, their daughter Lolita screamed loudly. The man said McCollin was hit in the head by the bandit with the ‘chopper’ resulting in him sustaining an injury. Samaroo and Narine also sustained several cuts and bruises. The family said that the amount stolen from the shop was about $10,000.
Neighbours who had heard the commotion called the police who arrived some 10-15 minutes later and blocked off the entrance to the scheme.
A neighbour said that earlier, just after leaving the shop, he had observed two men standing on the road and another woman reportedly also saw the bandits as they ran away with the box.
Narine said this was the second time that the family had been attacked. Last August two men had attempted to rob them but were thwarted.
Residents noted that there were empty lots in the area with high bushes, which provide hiding places for bandits. They also questioned the use of the Community Policing Group (CPG) in the village claiming that it did not respond to the incident. They said too that the CPG did not patrol the area and the police only did so occasionally. Residents also called for street lights to be installed in the area, pointing out that the darkness aided the bandits.
