(Antigua Sun) – A Guyanese taxi driver was robbed of over (EC) $2,400 by armed robbers, but not before he engaged them in a desperate fight for his life early Monday morning.
Reports are that two well-dressed young men visited the taxi stand at the West Bus Station, asked the taxi driver, Noel Johnson to take them to Cedar Grove and paid in advance.
“They gave me $50 before I left and I gave them back their change. There was no hesitation on their part to pay me,” Johnson told the Antigua Sun on Tuesday.
During the journey, Johnson said the men did not appear suspicious as they were watching a DVD player and singing along to some songs that were being played from his deck.
As they reached a dark area of the village not too far from Royal Gardens, Johnson said he became nervous.
“They told me where to turn. I felt uncomfortable on the way to that area, because I had moments before dropped off a man and his girlfriend and took the man back to the bus station. When I turned to ask exactly where they were going, I heard a click and thought it was the window opening. Then, I felt a hand around my throat and something hard and cold in the back of my head.”
Johnson said at this stage, the other man began to shout “kill him! shoot him!”
The 43-year-old man said he tried to get out of the vehicle but it was difficult.
He said he later managed to get possession of the gun and scrambled out of the bus.
“When he was shouting kill him, I thought not tonight and I grabbed his right hand and used my hands to hold the object. I moved a little left, and turned his hands over to my left side and got an opportunity to turn out on my seat.
“When I turned, I realised it was a gun and it came directly in my chest. I said to myself you are not killing me tonight, so I turned and ended on my back and managed to get the gun out of his hand,” Johnson explained.
Johnson told the Sun that as the struggle continued between him and the taller bandit, the other one managed to get out of the bus, went around to the driver’s side door and held onto his feet.
The bandit, according to Johnson, told his partner in crime not to let Johnson get away and held his left leg.
“So I kicked him and my boot and socks came off in his hand. The gun came out of the hand of the other man, so I dropped through the window and fell to the ground. He jumped out of the bus and came over me, I fired at him. I squeezed the trigger and it went click, click. I squeezed the trigger again and the same thing happened, so I got up and rushed at him.
“I ran him down and he picked up stones and threw them and hit me several times. The other short one ran behind me,” Johnson explained.
The taxi operator said that the shorter bandit turned around and started the bus and tried to run him over with the vehicle.
He said he had to jump over the fence of the customer he had earlier dropped off to seek refuge.
The duo he said drove off in his vehicle with the money inside.
Johnson told the Sun that the police were notified and they responded very quickly.
His bus was later found in the Fort James area with extensive damage to the inside.
He said the DVD player, CDs, and equaliser among others were stolen from the bus.
The police are now investigating the matter and have said that the weapon, which Johnson handed over to them, was an imitation.
Johnson was treated at the Holberton Hospital for bruises about his body and discharged.
